The U.S. and China will hold their seventh Strategic and Economic Dialogue this week in Washington. On the agenda will be a range of regional and global issues, including territorial disputes among Asian nations in the South China Sea.
The six nations with competing claims to the area are China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. The territories in dispute are the Spratly Islands, the Scarborough Shoal and the Parcel Islands. Beijing says it’s nearly done with a land reclamation project the Spratlys, something that has drawn sharp criticism from Washington.
Beijing dates its claim to the South China Sea to the Xia and Han dynasties, which ruled as far back as 2,000 B.C. During China’s republican era, in the first half of the 20th century, it mapped and named 291 islands and reefs in the region. The U.S. says the disputed territory is in international waters and wants the United Nations to determine sovereignty.

At the heart of the dispute is a major trade route, through which most of China’s oil imports flow. Control of the area could allow Beijing to disrupt shipments to all other countries in East and Southeast Asia as well as deny access to foreign military forces, such as the United States’.
The different nations are also trying to assert rights over fishing grounds and potentially vast undersea oil and gas reserves.
During The Week Ahead segment on Al Jazeera America, David Shuster spoke to Isaac Stone Fish, Asia Editor at Foreign Policy magazine. Stone Fish said that past meetings haven’t produced substantial results but that this one could be different.
“It is a very significant meeting,” he said. “With all of the tensions going on right now in the South China Sea, we might actually see some news coming out of these meetings.” He added, however, that it won’t consume the entire dialogue.
“I think the South China Sea is something where [the U.S.] clearly has the upper hand and China recognizes that other countries in Southeast Asia are seeing that it’s the aggressor, so I think the South China Sea is not going to dominate the talks.”
Stone Fish said that other topics the United States will want to discuss include North Korea, trade and Internet hacking. Earlier this month, a breach of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management network compromised sensitive security clearance information of millions of federal employees and contractors. Although the U.S. has not been able to verify those responsible, it has pointed the finger at Chinese hackers.
“The Chinese really don’t like to talk about this, pointing out that the United States is not the only one that gets hacked. China and Chinese companies get hacked a lot, and we just know a lot less about it,” he said.
Stone Fish said that “China is the world’s second-most-powerful country and they really are ready to compete with us economically, militarily and politically.”
The two nations hope to further their cooperation when Chinese President Xi Jinping makes his first state visit to the United States this September.

President Obama is Asia for a 10-day trip. He will attend regional summits as a means of implementing his pivot to Asia strategy that redirects U.S. attention to the region.
It will be the first time in two years that Obama will be attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, hosted this year by Beijing. China’s growing economic power has many in the region worried about its influence. Washington is also concerned about China’s growing power as a counter to its own influence on the global stage. Beijing, on the other hand, views U.S. interest in the region as a means of containing China’s power.

The president's second stop will be in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, where he will meet leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In Myanmar, he is expected to push for humanitarian reforms in the country, where democratic reforms have slowed since his last visit in 2012.
His final stop will be in Brisbane, Australia for a G20 Summit that will bring together as many as 4,000 delegates. Among a host of topics on the agenda will be development, energy, and global institutions.
During Al Jazeera America’s Sunday night segment “The Week Ahead,” Thomas Drayton was joined by Isaac Stone Fish, asia editor at Foreign Policy; and Ed Gresser, executive director of Progressive Economy, for a discussion of the political, military and economic issues surrounding the president’s trip.
“Over the last four or five years, especially since the financial crisis, China has been a lot more assertive,” says Stone Fish. “They do still see the United States as a super power, but they don’t see it as the only super power. Though they don’t actually say it, they now see themselves as equals to the United States.”
Gresser says Obama’s image is not as bad and many think, despite the recent Republican takeover of Congress in the midterm elections. “The president is going out there with a lot of public and congressional backing from both parties.”
The segment also included a report from Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan, who noted that although the trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is not officially on the president’s agenda, it’s likely to be a major talking point throughout his trip. The TPP a deal between the U.S. and 11 Asian countries which addresses tariff issues, copyrights, labor standards, and environmental measures. Critics in the U.S. worry that it could give rise to the tyranny of multi-national corporations.
China was intentionally excluded from the TPP, but the U.S. insists it would welcome Beijing if it wanted to join. Chan says Obama’s trip isn’t likely to solve any big problems, but hopes to start the process of rebuilding US-Asia relations that many Asians feel Washington has neglected.
Gresser believes the Senate will also be supportive of the TPP. “In general, there’s pretty good bi-partisan support for the president on this. If he brings home a deal that opens markets, preserves the global internet, raises labor standards, I think it will be well-received.”
Stone Fish adds that the biggest challenge for the TPP is public awareness. He says not many people know what the TPP is and what it means for the average American. He says Beijing is also investing in its new Silk Road Agreement. “On Saturday, Beijing offered $40 billion to start a fund that would help build infrastructure between China and Southeast and Central Asia.”
Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown also joined the discussion by satellite from Beijing, saying that China sees itself at the center of the summit’s regional economic integration. “China also wants to see the creation of a vast investment bank that analysts say could rival the Asian Development Bank and even the International Monetary Fund.” The U.S., Japan, South Korea, and Australia, however, are reluctant to sign onto the idea because of concerns about governance and accountability issues. 
Gresser says there are two major incentives for the U.S. to pursue trade deals with Asia. “If we can export more, that will accelerate our ability to grow the economy and put more people back to work.” He adds that it’s also important for the US to be able to shape the economy in Asia in a way that will benefit the United States.

As the US and China prepare for annual bilateral talks, a number of contentious topics are up for discussion. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew this week to Beijing, where they will take part in the sixth annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

In addition to economic ties, the leaders will discuss other topics, including intellectual property rights; China’s valuation of its currency, the yuan; cyberhacking; and maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

Al Jazeera America’s Thomas Drayton discussed the upcoming trip during the channel’s regular Sunday night segment The Week Ahead. Joining Drayton were Gordon Chang, author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” and Ann Lee, a professor of economics at New York University.

Chang stated that China is trying to exert its power over everyone else in the region. “China just believes that it has right to territory that is under the control of others,” he said. “This is from India in the south to South Korea in the north.

Lee disagreed, saying that territorial claims only recently became a big issue. She blamed the Obama administration’s Asia pivot, calling it the turning point in the situation. The pivot is a long-term policy shift, first announced in 2011, that involves reorienting U.S. military and diplomatic priorities away from Europe and the Middle East and toward East Asia.

The analysts also disagreed on whether the waters of the South China Sea are international territory or belong solely to China.

“Some of this is China believing that they have claims to these territories,” Lee said. “I don’t think that they’re necessarily doing this to provoke the U.S. They’re reacting to the U.S. pivot.”

Chang, however, said the White House’s policy shift was in direct response to Chinese provocation.

The two agreed that Chinese leaders feel the Asia pivot is directed at them, though the guests identified different reasons for it. Chang said other nations in the region want U.S. protection from China, while Lee said that there was no major tension in the region until the pivot was introduced.

“The countries in Southeast Asia were very integrated into China’s economy,” she explained. “China had very strong trade relations with South Korea and Japan, to the point where they were talking about developing an Asian currency. And the U.S. was very alarmed that they were being excluded from this very dynamic region and felt that they needed a reason to go back there and build up their military there.”

She added that once the U.S. withdrew its forces from the Middle East, the next logical place to move its troops was to Asia.

Chang strongly disagreed and stated that the U.S. never wanted to implement the pivot but was dragged into doing so only because of Chinese aggression.

As for Chinese-Russian relations, Lee said that the more the U.S. antagonizes Beijing, the more it will be pushed toward better relations with Moscow.

Both Chang and Lee said that they don’t believe anything constructive will come out of this week’s talks.

Chang said that the more the U.S. has tried to reach out to the Chinese, the more it has inflated China’s sense of self-importance, placing sole responsibility on Beijing for the lack of cooperation.

But Lee said finger pointing will not resolve any problems.

“I don’t see either side as seeing the other side as being sincere,” she said. “There’s a very deep lack of trust going on. Unless you step out of your own shoes and try to understand where the other side is coming from, then you’re obviously never going to improve the relationship.”