West meets east There were plenty of strains evident between the United States and China during the recent Beijing visit of the US secretary of state, Ms Madeleine Albright. The question being asked is whether the careful framework of engagement and polite disagreement that was constructed after the 1996 naval confrontation off Taiwan can handle these strains. Rhetorically the main differences lie in the field of human rights. China has launched a major crackdown on dissidents and pro-democracy activists in the past few months that has gone down poorly in Washington. Since Mr Bill Clinton?s administration delinked human rights from trade, China?s human rights record is expected to become an issue when the US presidential campaign kicks off early next year. The Clinton administration will probably immunize itself against such attacks by scolding Beijing loudly. A more substantial source of friction is the unstable military balance in Asia Pacific. North Korea?s firing of a rocket over Japan last year is pushing the US to providing missile defence systems for its east Asian allies. This infuriates China which has warned against providing new weapons to Taiwan in particular. Ms Albright?s visit made no progress on this issue. One reason being that North Korea?s actions seem to be beyond the control of either country. There was a more positive note to the visit. The US has clearly been impressed by China?s responsible behaviour during the east Asian currency crisis. Beijing deliberately absorbed trade losses by not devaluing the yuan in order to preserve the long term economic stability of the region. The reward was evident when Ms Albright came out strongly in favour of letting China into the World Trade Organization. The other area where the US-China equation has prospered has been in coordinating nonproliferation policies following the May nuclear tests in south Asia. If anything, China has criticized the West for being too easy on India. Washington has told Beijing to let its relations with India thaw, in part because the US rightly believes China?s support for Pakistan?s nuclear programme was a key reason for the tests in the first place. It is evident the military establishments in both countries are highly suspicious of each other. The Pentagon believes China?s ultimate goal is the domination of Asia. The People?s Liberation Army seems to hold the view the US would like to engineer either the overthrow of the communist regime or the breakup of China ? or both. Much of the harsher rhetoric between the two countries can be traced to men in uniform in both capitals. Which is why civilians who still preach engagement like Ms Albright and the Chinese premier, Mr Zhu Rongji, who visits the US in April, are trying their best to stress trade and commercial links between the two countries.