If India is anxious about Barack Obama’s promised diplomatic activism on Jammu and Kashmir, Beijing has reasons to worry about his approach to Taiwan and Tibet. For both countries, any sense of interference from the United States on questions of territorial integrity is entirely unacceptable.

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.

... contd.