Hu Should China Talk To?

Tomorrow, China’s President Hu Jintao has a summit scheduled with President Bush that will cover a variety of important topics, ranging from the Iranian nuclear crisis, China’s human rights record, the U.S. trade deficit with China, and China’s undervalued currency. But, its political importance aside, this will simply be one among many meetings Bush will have this year with foreign heads of state or heads of government. Thus, I think it’s more interesting to look at what Hu did yesterday and today — dining at Microsoft President Bill Gates’ home, making a speech at Boeing’s factories in Everett, Washington, and meeting privately with Washington’s Governor Christine Gregoire.

Gregoire’s description of her meetings with Hu offers some important insights on the current state of international and U.S. foreign relations. First, as much as I believe nation states remain the central organizing force of the international order, Hu’s courting of Gates and Gregoire shows that even states which take the formalities of sovereignty as seriously as China, now recognize that non-state and sub-state actors like Microsoft and Washington state may require individualized attention. Hu’s visits provide further evidence of the growing complexity of transnational networks, involving not just national governments, but also sub-national governments, corporations, NGOs and even individuals.

Second, Gregoire’s own interactions with Hu – on behalf of the one U.S. state not running a trade deficit with China – raise issues of when and how U.S. states should interact with foreign powers. After all, Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution prohibits U.S. states from entering into any “Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation” and restricts those same states from entering into other agreements or “compacts” with foreign powers unless Congress consents. Now, there’s likely no compacts being made between Washington state and China in this instance. But even without a formal agreement, should Gregoire be able to push Hu to have China host international conferences as she evidently did last night? Alternatively, can she urge China to engage in more trade with Washington state industries? What, if any limits, should there be on her interactions with a foreign head of state if Washington state’s interests run afoul of the interests of other U.S. states or U.S. foreign policy more generally? Finally and perhaps most importantly, who should police the states on these issues — is self-restraint enough, or should the federal government weigh in on what U.S. states can say to foreign powers? It’ll be interesting to see, for example, if any of the west coast events carry over onto the east coast agenda tomorrow and whether the federal goverment adopts, disputes, or ignores the positions advanced today by U.S. industry and at least one U.S. state.