On Their Minds and On the Agenda: The Bush-Jiang Crawford Summit
A summit meeting between China's President Jiang Zemin and President George Bush has been scheduled for late October in Crawford, Texas.
The Bush-Jiang summit carries enormous symbolic value in China (by recognizing that the PRC is engaged with Washington at the same level as other partners such as Putin of Russia or Abdallah of Saudi Arabia). However, it also provides a real opportunity to help build durable foundations for increasing and augmenting Sino-American cooperation. (2) This should not be squandered.
David M. Lampton is director of China Studies at The Nixon Center and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Lampton is the co-author of the recent study released by The Nixon Center entitled U.S.-China Relations in a Post-September 11th World. The full report is available at http://www.nixoncenter.org.
- A similar argument with regard to Russia was advanced by Paul J. Saunders in the September 18, 2002 issue of In the National Interest.
- This conclusion was also echoed by Yang Jiemian in his September 18, 2002 contribution to In the National Interest.