The Case for a Really Long Engagement

Because the United States and China are now the world's largest users of coal and together are responsible for almost 50 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions, there can be no solution to global warming without the active, joint leadership of Washington and Beijing.

And here's a bonus: by aggressively collaborating to develop, use and market sustainable energy technologies, the United States and China will also benefit from the new intellectual property, start-ups, industries and jobs that are destined to grow out of such a post-IT revolution. Moreover, if the United States and China forge a new partnership, they will also find their ties suddenly cushioned by a new common interest that could shape the future course of our relationship as much as the epic breakthrough following President Nixon and Henry Kissinger's trip to Beijing in 1972.

Orville Schell is the director of the Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations.

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One of the biggest impediments to building a strong relationship with China is that Americans know so little about the place, its history and its challenges.

Few realize that China has become our third-largest market for exports, or that U.S. sales to China have increased by more than 300 percent since 2000, a growth 10 times greater than that with any of our other large trading partners. Many Americans are unaware that the share of the U.S. global trade deficit with East Asia, including China, has declined from 75 percent to 49 percent over the past decade, or that most of the goods that U.S. firms manufacture in China are sold there, not exported to the United States.

Most Americans also fail to recognize how much U.S. and Chinese interests overlap in critical areas such as global growth, regional security, nuclear proliferation, energy security, food and product safety, environmental protection and climate change. Talking and listening to China is a way to advance our nation's vital interests.

The Strategic Economic Dialogue started by the Bush administration proves that joint discussions work. In four sessions over the past two years, cabinet officials from both nations achieved important breakthroughs, such as the agreements to negotiate a bilateral investment treaty to protect investors in both countries, engage in joint efforts on food and safety investigations, and collaborate on converting biomass resources into fuel.

Time and again, we have seen the beneficial results of engagement -- and the damage done by belligerence. I hope that President-elect Obama will continue the conversation with China, strengthening habits of cooperation and building mutual trust and confidence.

Carla A. Hills served as U.S. Trade Representative from 1989-93 and is the chairman and chief executive of Hills & Company, a Washington-based international consulting firm.

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