China-U.S. Handshake in Northeast Asia

Dual instability has simultaneously shaken China-U.S. ties and Northeast Asian balance of power, putting on hold a Six-Party Talks that promised to give birth to a region-wide security framework based on great power partnerships. The fuse was the impasse in the Korean nuclear issue, the controversial sinking of the South Korean patrol ship Cheonan off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula and the China-Japanese territorial dispute over Diaoyu (known as Senkaku in Japanese) Island in the East China Sea. A new Cold War consequently looms large, while regional peace and stability seem to have taken a back seat. On top of this,there has been a sudden reversal in the decade-long stable China-U.S. relationship with flare-ups over U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan, President Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, the Goggle event, RMB exchange rates, and South China Sea sovereignty rights. This article argues that China-U.S. collaboration in Northeast Asia represents the stone to kill two birds: bilateral and regional stability. Herein lies the paradox--regional peace and stability awaits long-term China-U.S. strategic stability, which, in turn, requires bilateral regional collaboration. Such "dual stability" promises to break the bottleneck, thereby ushering in genuine regional peace and stability and expediting cooperation in the broader Asia-Pacific region.