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Journalism of Courage
Adding a conjunction to the name of a diplomatic forum may not sound like much,but America and China insist it is significant. On July 27th the two countries will hold their first Strategic and Economic Dialogue attended,unlike previous conjunctionless ones,by Americas secretary of state. Both hope the upgrade will help them deal with everything from climate change to global economic imbalances. It may not.
China,ever worried about the impact of its rising power on American political opinion,has been pleased that Barack Obamas campaign slogan change does not seem to apply to Americas dealings with China itself. The new forum merely tweaks the Strategic Economic Dialogue launched by President Bush in 2006 which was led on the American side by the treasury secretary. It also absorbs a security-focused forum called the Senior Dialogue which began in 2005. Hillary Clintons involvement,alongside her treasury counterpart,Timothy Geithner,raises the status of Americas participation,which,the Americans hope,will encourage more progress on issues especially climate change that straddled the remits of the forums precursors.
Despite the approach of UN-sponsored climate-change talks in Copenhagen in December,America and China the worlds biggest contributors to global warming show little sign of consensus. A visit by Mr Obama himself to China,which is likely to take place not long before the Copenhagen conference,may help focus minds. A conjunction of them is harder to imagine.
The Economist Newspaper Limited 2009
