United Press International,
UNITED NATIONS: The United States is seeking a cooperative relationship with China. It wants to encourage constructive action by Beijing, such as democratic reforms and a rejection of mercantilism, hoping China can become a responsible stakeholder, strengthening the international system that has enabled its success.
“We are too interconnected to try to hold China at arm's length,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said Wednesday in New York. “It is time to take our policy beyond opening doors to China's membership into the international system, we need to urge China to become a responsible stakeholder in that system.”
Why are such changes sought?
He said Washington “welcomes a confident, peaceful and prosperous China, one that appreciates that its growth and development depends on constructive connections with the rest of the world.”
The United States hopes to “intensify work with a China that not only adjusts to the international rules developed over the last century, but also joins us and others to address the challenges of the new century,” Zoellick told the National Committee on U.S. China Relations at their annual dinner.
As the former U.S. trade representative, he completed negotiations that brought Beijing and Taipei, Taiwan, into the World Trade Organization.
Citing “a gulf in perceptions” on both sides, Zoellick, said China needs a “benign international environment for its work at home (and) does not want a conflict with the United States.”
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