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1 [1] (December 22, 2014)

handle is hein.crs/crsuntaahip0001 and id is 1 raw text is: , ,'Congress onal Research Service Informn th egslatived dbatesnce 1914 S December 22, 2014 China, U.S. Leadership, and Geopolitical Challenges in Asia After 35 years of fast-paced economic growth, China is now the world's second-largest economy in nominal terms and is estimated to be the largest in purchasing power parity (PPP) tens, with a modernizing military and enhanced strategic clout. China is the United States' second largest trading partner. For more than 120 countries, it is now a larger trading partner than the United States. China is also a major investor on several continents. Bolstered by economic success, Xi Jinping, China's Communist Party General Secretary since 2012 and its President since 2013, has adopted a more assertive approach to issues China sees as related to its core interests in sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political control. Such issues include maritime territorial disputes; Taiwan, the island democracy with which China has long vowed to unify, by force if necessary; unrest in the ethnic minority border regions of Xinjiang and Tibet; calls for electoral democracy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; and domestic dissent. Under Xi, China has also appeared to question more forcefully the U.S. role in Asia, and increasingly to cast China in the role of the region's leading power. Among recently launched Chinese initiatives are an Asian Security Concept; a multilateral development bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB); plans for an upgraded free trade agreement (FTA) with the nations of Southeast Asia and for a new Asia-Pacific FTA; and two projects, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, accompanied by a Silk Road Fund, intended to boost connectivity from Southeast Asia through China and Central and South Asia to the Middle East and Europe. The Obama Administration has said that it welcomes China's rise, albeit under certain conditions. On a trip to Beijing in November 2014, President Barack Obama stated that, the United States welcomes the continuing rise of a China that is peaceful, prosperous, and stable and that plays a responsible role in the world. The Administration's signature policy initiative in the Asia-Pacific region is a strategic rebalancing or pivot to the region, designed in part to give comfort to countries uncertain about the impact of China's rise and provide important balance and leadership, in the words of a former senior Obama Administration official. The strategy includes strengthening cooperation with U.S. treaty allies; stepping up engagement with regional multilateral institutions, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); and expanding trade with Asian nations through negotiations toward a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. It also includes working to strengthen relations with China, including its military. The two countries are engaged in more than 100 bilateral dialogue mechanisms. Questions for Congress include: How important is it for the United States to remain the preeminent power in the Asia- Pacific region, from both a regional and a strategic perspective? If important, how best should the United States maintain its leadership, particularly in a domestic U.S. climate of fiscal austerity? How can the United States help ensure that a rising China's efforts to shape the international system and the Asia-Pacific region do not undermine U.S. interests or the interests of U.S. allies and partners? To what degree should the United States encourage China to help address certain regional and global challenges for which the United States has hitherto shouldered primary responsibility? As China transitions to a new economic growth model, how prepared is the United States for the impact of potentially slower Chinese growth on the world economy? Is it possible to avoid debilitating mistrust in the U.S. -China relationship while China remains ruled by a Communist Party deeply intolerant of any perceived threats to its monopoly on power? Finally, what place should human rights occupy in U.S. China policy? Figure I. The United States and China: Kev Statistics Source: World Bank, International Energy Agency. Graphic by CRS Visual Information Specialist Amber Hope Wilhelm. China on the U.S. Role in Asia In May 2014, President Xi seemed to signal dissatisfaction with the U.S. role in Asia when he unveiled a proposal for a new Asian Security Concept defined by the idea that it is for the people of Asia to run the affairs of Asia, solve the problems of Asia, and uphold the security of Asia. In November 2014, Xi told Obama that the concept is not intended to exclude the United States from Asian security, assuring him that, the Pacific Ocean is broad enough to accommodate the development of both China and the United States, and [for] our two countries to work together to contribute to security in Asia. Nonetheless, Chinese questioning of the U.S. role in Asia has continued. In a high-profile speech in late November, a Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister implicitly criticized U.S. wwwcrsgov 17-57D