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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat the Next U.S. Ambassador to China Must Do
http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/what-the-next-us-ambassador-to-china-must-do/281819/The person who succeeds Gary Locke as the U.S. Ambassador to China will assume one of the world's most important diplomatic posts. (Wong Campion/Reuters)
Gary Locke succeeded in a way that few U.S. ambassadors to China havein improving public perceptions of U.S. culture. Lockes down-to-earth approachability and lack of ostentation certainly helped. So did the initiatives of shortening waits for U.S. visas from 70-100 days to 3-5 days, and making pollution data public, helping the Chinese people pressure their government into doing the same. Not bad for two and a half years.
The new U.S. ambassador to China should continue to make it easier for Chinese to come to the United States to visit, work and study. Millions of Chinese parents are concerned that Chinas educational system isnt teaching their kids the critical and creative thinking skills theyll need to succeed in a economy that increasingly will be based more on ideas than on cheap manufacturing. Gifted students should be allowed to come to the United States and study and, if they like, stay and work. And if and when they go back to China, they will be living examples of how learning, working and living in a more open society leads to the kind of thinking that China needs to transform its economy and gain the kind of respect it wants in the world.
Within China, the new U.S. ambassador also can encourage and facilitate educational and scientific exchanges, and suggest that sharing ideas is better for China in the long run than building a protective fence around Chinas own indigenous innovators. That may be a cozy setup for existing Chinese companies; it does little to encourage the kind of breakthrough innovation Chinas leaders want.
On the political frontgeopolitical tensions with Japan and in the South China Sea are likely to continue, and the U.S. ambassador likely will be having many a discussion with Chinese counterparts on those issues. The U.S. resolve to remain the predominant Pacific power may be tested, and while policy will be made in Washington, diplomacy in Beijing will play a role in sending the necessary signals in a timely fashion. Some in China believe the country will inevitably will eclipse the United States, which should have the good grace to step aside as leading superpower sooner rather than later. The new U.S. ambassador will do well to project confidence without arrogance, and an attitude that the China-U.S. relationship is vitally important, because both countries are important to the global economy, politics and environment, and are likely to remain so for a long time to come.
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