After a year of ups and downs in China-U.S. relations, are the two giants heading for collision or cooperation in 2012, in the context of global economic woes and U.S. presidential elections?
The answer is not clear, partly because of the contradicting messages from Washington in the past year. President Barack Obama said his country would conduct sound cooperation with China in the beginning but later met with the Dalai Lama, approved arms sales to Taiwan and interfered in the South China Sea issue.
Last year, China overtook Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, and the power shift has got on nerves of the world’s sole superpower, which has long been plagued by economic woes and unemployment.
Categories: China, United States