President Obama in China
Ever since Richard Nixon opened the door in 1972, all presidents have faced a balancing act with China. For President Obama, who arrived in China on Sunday, the challenge is even tougher and more urgent. He needs Beijing's help on a host of hugely important and extremely difficult problems, including stabilizing the global financial system, curbing global warming, prying away North Korea's nuclear weapons, and ensuring that Iran doesn't get to build any.
To do that he needs to encourage China to play an even stronger international role -- but also curb some of its darker instincts, including its mistreatment of its own citizens, its less than savory relationships with countries like Sudan and its tendency to bully its neighbors.
Mr. Obama has already acknowledged China's growing clout (and that of other fast-growing economies), when he made the G-20 instead of the G-8 the main forum for global economic issues. We hope that will pay off in more responsible behavior from Beijing.
Still in the search for common ground, Mr. Obama has his work cut out for him. While the two countries have enacted huge stimulus packages, profound tensions remain over China's exchange-rate policy.
On the security side, China joined America and other major powers in imposing tougher nuclear-related sanctions on North Korea. But it is still Pyongyang's main economic benefactor and has shown a willingness to exploit loopholes in the sanctions. Beijing also evinces concern about Iran's nuclear program. But it seems more concerned about its own voracious energy needs, and Iran's ability to satisfy them. Mr. Obama will have to work harder to persuade China of the dangers out there, and of the need for tough United Nations sanctions to curb the nuclear appetites of Tehran and Pyongyang.
China has long and close ties with Pakistan. We hope Mr. Obama will urge China's president, Hu Jintao, to provide more economic assistance for Islamabad and press its leaders to keep fighting the Taliban insurgency. While China-Taiwan relations are improving, Mr. Obama should still press Beijing to remove hundreds of missiles it has aimed at the island.
Some activists worry that the Obama administration has been too muted in its criticism of China's abysmal human rights. Mr. Obama postponed a meeting with the Dalai Lama until after this summit meeting. But trying a less confrontational approach, for a while, isn't unreasonable.
China's success as a modern superpower is not guaranteed. Job shortages and worker malcontent pose a huge challenge, as do separatist movements in Tibet and Xinjiang.
Mr. Obama needs to find a way to subtly remind his hosts of those vulnerabilities -- and the fact that they are better dealt with through more political openness rather than more repression. A China that respected its own people and its neighbors would be more stable, economically stronger, have more international influence and be a much better American partner.
From Beijing to Copenhagen
What everyone has suspected for weeks has now been made more or less official by President Obama and other world leaders: no new legally binding climate treaty will emerge at discussions in Copenhagen next month.