U.S. Should Work To Rebuild China Ties As Engagement Ends, Tension Flairs – Orville Schell

The death last week of long-time China policy architect Henry Kissinger can "Be seen as an apt metaphor" for the end of the engagement policy the controversial statesman initiated in the early 1970s and that over the ensuing decades led to closer trade and culture ties between the two once antagonistic countries, long-time American expert on China Orville Schell said on Friday. With engagement gone, "The U.S. should now look to find whatever opportunities it can to build new bridges, while at the time working with allies, partners and friends to strengthen its military, as well as economic and cultural presence, as a form of deterrence in such contested hot spots as the Taiwan Strait, South China Sea and Senkaku Islands," said Schell, the current director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York. The gathering highlighted collaboration among nations - including the U.S. and China - in the fight against cancer, and was held jointly with the 6th annual symposium organized by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the Chinese Thoracic Oncology Group of China, which have worked together on cancer research. Engagement started - though without the name "Engagement" - in 1972 when Kissinger and Nixon went to China. Carter recognized China and "Engagement" then continued for decades. I first went to China in 1975 when Mao Zedong was still alive, and there was precious little friendship between the U.S. and China. Schell: The catalyst for a better tomorrow is for the United States and its various partners, allies and friends to be cautious and temperate, and build better connections where we can, but don't be unnecessarily provocative - don't give up Taiwan, don't give up the South China Sea, don't give up the Senkaku Islands and don't give up on Arunachal Pradesh in India that China claims as part of Tibet.