To fight the war against terrorism, the United States needs allies around the globe.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are extremely straining the U.S. armed forces. The United States cannot dare to wage a war against North Korea because U.S. capabilities are already overstretched. Washington needs allies to achieve its security goals.

There are spheres where China and the United States have the same interests. Both countries do not have any sympathy for Islamic terrorists. Both countries have a vital interest in a stable Korean peninsula. Both countries did not want to cause military conflict. Washington must be interested in cooperating with China on security affairs.

China so far is probably the only country that can influence North Korea. It is also one of the very few countries that have close ties with Iran. Instead of trying to isolate and threaten Pyongyang and Tehran, Washington should cooperate with China to persuade those countries to abandon their nuclear programs.

As a standing member of the United Nations Security Council, China can promote U.S. initiatives in the world organization. Washington should stop regarding China as a potential enemy without neglecting the differences between the two states.

With regard to Taiwan, Washington should make clear that it would neither tolerate Chinese military action nor coercive methods to bring Taiwan under Beijing's control or any development in Taiwan to declare formal independence.

The United States as well as all other Western nations should continue to watch closely the situation of human rights and religious freedom in China.

An intelligent policy with regard to China would support the integration of this country into the international political and economic community and would strive to build up a comprehensive cooperation between the countries. In the long term, only such a policy would help to improve the standard of living for all of China's people and promote political and religious freedom in the country.

Economic cooperation between the two countries is one of the most important factors for building a partnership. When in 1979 the Chinese leadership under Paramount Leader Deng Xiaoping decided to implement a total reform of China's economy, the Chinese Communist Party regarded three elements as decisive for the success.

First of all, the planning system of the economy was carefully replaced by a more market-oriented model. Secondly, the system of prices that were fixed by political authorities was abandoned and substituted with prices that were determined by the open market. Thirdly, in order to gain access to foreign currency and technology, China was opened to investors from other countries.

The reasons for these fundamental reforms were to prevent the economy from collapsing and to maintain the power monopoly of the CCP. The reforms were extraordinary successful, but the more China's economy grew, the more dependent the country became on foreign trade.

In order to maintain its phenomenal growth, China's economy must be opened still more. Some figures of China's trade statistics make this fact very clear. In 1993, China exported goods worth about $90 billion and imported goods with a value of $104 billion. In 2002, China exported goods worth $325 billion while it imported goods worth $295 billion. These figures show the importance of China's trade with the outer world for the economic well being of the country.

The trade between the United States and China deserves particular attention. In 2002, the United States was China's largest trading partner after Japan. In the same year, the United States was the most important export market and the fourth largest import supplier. Since then, the trade between the two countries has grown still further.

China no longer has the choice to cut its economic ties with the outer world. Two factors prevent this. First, China needs foreign technology in order to develop a highly sophisticated economy. Secondly, China needs enormous amounts of raw materials to fuel the thirst of its economy.

If this trade would be interrupted for whatever reason, China's economy would face an immediate collapse. Such an economic breakdown would lead to massive political unrest and would threaten the power monopoly of the CCP. For this reason, the government in Beijing cannot dare to stop this trade. Each policy dealing with China should always be made with this fact in mind.

Therefore, all policy dealing with Beijing should deepen China's economic opening and integration into the world trade and political system. Another very important reason is demanding such a strategy. Despite all economic success, China's government is facing enormous problems. One of the most important difficulties Beijing must solve is raising the standard of living for the whole population.

In the Western World and especially in the United States, it is very often forgotten that in China only about 400 million of a population of 1.3 billion people are integrated into the economic success. This means the remaining 900 million people are not participating in the economic miracle.

Most of these people live in the inner provinces of the country, far away from the economic powerhouses that are located primarily on the coast. These people suffer from poverty, exploitation and brutal repression by corrupt local authorities.

To integrate this vast majority of Chinese into the economic system will be the most important task for the Chinese leadership in the future. If Beijing should fail to carry out this mission, the whole governmental system could be on the brink of collapse. This would be a catastrophe not only for China, but also for all of its neighbors too.

It should be the foremost interest of all Western states, particularly the United States, to deepen economic cooperation with China and help Beijing to solve its problem of raising standard of living of the whole population.

(Thomas Wiegand is a lecturer in foreign and security policy for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the University of Bonn and the German armed forces. This article is reprinted by permission of the Munich-based World Security Network.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

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