IT’S HARD not to see something emblematic in the way Tai Shan, a panda born and raised in Washington DC’s National Zoo, is heading for a Sichuan breeding centre, given the way relations between the US and China have been strained of late.
Although Tai Shan’s return is part of a long-agreed deal, it comes as the Chinese and the Americans are engaged in their tetchiest verbal battle in years.
No one sees this developing into anything to worry about too seriously, and it is likely to remain a war of words, but Beijing’s tough stance shows it is definitely keen to maintain and savour its new status as a world power.
Beijing is furious with Washington over a €4.6 billion US weapons package for Taiwan, the self-ruled island that it considers a breakaway province, and it has threatened sanctions against US firms involved in the sale.
Sino-US ties have also been tested by disputes over internet freedoms in China after Google threatened to pull out of the Chinese market over censorship and hacking attacks.
The Chinese government is particularly concerned that its sovereignty is threatened by US president Barack Obama’s intention to meet the Dalai Lama soon. The Dalai Lama is reportedly due to visit Washington in around two weeks, despite China’s increasingly vocal opposition to the meeting, and during this visit he is expected to meet Mr Obama.
During his visit to Beijing last year, Mr Obama told China’s president, Hu Jintao, that he would meet the Dalai Lama, although he did cancel an October meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, provoking the anger of many Tibetan human rights groups.
The US came out with some forceful language on China’s currency, which it believes puts US goods at a disadvantage. Mr Obama said his administration was pushing China to enforce trade rules and further open its markets.
Washington intended “to get much tougher about enforcement of existing rules, putting constant pressure on China and other countries to open up their markets in reciprocal ways”, Mr Obama said. US companies believe that China keeps its currency at an artificially low level to give its exporters a price advantage.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington has estimated the yuan is undervalued by about 30 per cent against all world currencies and about 40 per cent against the dollar.