Given the propensity of Democratic administrations to posture a little more than the Republicans on internal conflicts and human rights, the Chinese leadership is taking no chances. In his very first conversation with Obama, President Hu Jintao cautioned him on Taiwan.

In their telephone talk over the weekend, Hu suggested that a ‘proper handling’ of the Taiwan issue would be critical for the further improvement of bilateral relations. During the campaign, Obama had supported the Bush Administration’s arms sales to Taiwan that angered Beijing.

“China and the United States should respect each other and accommodate each other’s concerns, and appropriately settle sensitive issues between the two countries, particularly the Taiwan issue,” Xinhua quoted Hu as saying. China is also aware that Congressional Democrats are deeply empathetic to the Tibetan cause. Recall Beijing’s anger when the U.S. speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Dharamshala to see the Dalai Lama during the recent crisis in Tibet.

Although he could not meet the Dalai Lama during his campaign, Obama wrote a warm letter reassuring him “of my highest respect and support for you, your mission and your people at this critical time.”

With the indications that Sino-Tibetan talks have now reached a dead end, expect Tibet to come back into the Sino-American discourse. It is not that Washington will do anything dramatic on Tibet, but a stronger Democratic rhetoric is likely to spoil the atmospherics of bilateral relations. Besides Taiwan and Tibet, global warming, China’s trade surplus with the U.S., and the value of its currency are all likely to generate sharper controversies between Beijing and Washington in the coming days.

America’s backyard

Meanwhile, China is signalling its determination to raise its own profile in the US backyard, Latin America. The day after Obama’s election, Beijing issued its first official paper on China’s goals and objectives in Latin America.

The release of the paper comes as Hu prepares to travel to Cuba, Costa Rica and Peru after attending a November 15 international summit on the global financial crisis in Washington. As in Africa, so in Latin America, China’s focus is on gaining access to the vast mineral resources of the continent. The paper called for a further expansion of already booming trade with the region and promised to negotiate free trade agreements for mutual benefit.

If China’s expanding economic presence in Latin America raised eyebrows in Washington, Beijing’s new talk of stepping up its defence cooperation with the South American nations is likely to invite greater scrutiny from the next administration in Washington.

“The Chinese side will actively carry out military exchanges and defence dialogue and cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries,” the paper said. Beijing is also ready to “discuss” debt relief for Latin American and Caribbean nations “as China’s ability permits”, it added.

Cyber attacks

Speculation is mounting that Chinese security agencies might have been involved in hacking the computer systems of the campaign headquarters of Obama and his Republican rival, Senator John McCain.

During the summer, the U.S. Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation warned the Obama and McCain teams that their computer networks had been compromised by “a foreign entity”, which is said to be a code for China. The campaign teams thought they had a virus problem.

American intelligence community believes the attacks could have been part of Beijing’s effort to learn more about the internal debates within both the campaigns. One of the boldest cyber attacks against the U.S. government occurred last year when the Pentagon computer systems serving the Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates were hacked. Washington suspects the involvement of Chinese military intelligence. Beijing, however, denies these allegations and says it too has been a victim of cyber attacks.

The writer is a Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singaporeiscrmohan@ntu.edu.sg