The U.S. and China could be on a collision course for destruction, said ambassador Alan Holmer, special U.S. envoy for China and the Strategic Economic Dialogue.

“Possibly the most important economic question in this century is whether or not we get the economic relationship with China right,” Holmer said, during a lecture on U.S.-China economic relations three days before he will meet with President George W. Bush, President Hu Jintao of China and other economic leaders in Washington.

The two countries are currently figuring out ways to work together, address issues and pursue the commonality of interests for the two, he said.

Holmer described his first vision of the relationship between the two countries as dark and problematic.

“It’s a future of a superpower and a rising power on a collision course becoming increasingly suspicious of the other’s intention, scrambling at a zero sum competition for resources and influence, oblivious to the possibilities of mutual interest. It’s a future where we see each other not as we really are, but as caricatures,” Holmer said.

This future could be easily fractured by unavoidable misunderstandings and accidents, he said.

Holmer’s second vision is more optimistic. Here he said he sees leadership in the countries communicating and trusting each other.

“Our ability to work together matches the degree to which our economies are already deeply integrated,” he said. “Working through misunderstanding and crises and expanding, where possible, mutual interests while recognizing distinct national goals.”

The second vision is the one the countries have been trying to promote through the Strategic Economic Dialogue, a communication tool used by economic and political leaders to fix the relationship, Holmer said.

Establishing a lasting economic relationship with China is important for the U.S. because China is the fastest growing major market for U.S. exports, he said. Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, U.S. exports with China have grown five times faster than for the rest of the world. This relationship will affect students and their jobs, Holmer said.

“Many of you will seek to go to work for companies where their enterprise is based on their ability to export,” he said. “Oklahoma is not an exception to the expansion of exports. Oklahoma exports to China have roughly tripled over the past six or seven years,” Holmer said.

Although many concerns have been raised over the last few years about China’s worker rights and product safety practices, Holmer said it’s important to remember China has only had 30 years to smooth out problems of economic growth, while the U.S. has had 230 years.

But some students have concerns about the future of the Strategic Economic Dialogue.

Will O’Donnell, international area studies and letters junior, said he thinks the Strategic Economic Dialogue is a positive way to address issues, but he’d like to see other countries, like India, involved in the process.

“I’d like to see it be more multilateral,” he said.

John Best, biochemistry and Asian studies junior, said there is a growing economic gap between inland and coastal Chinese people. He said the Strategic Economic Dialogue does not address small businesses.

“It seems like it factors in big business but not [the] entire population,” he said.