Obama and Wen Jiabao discuss economic policy, regional security at Asia summits

President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had an unscripted meeting Saturday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Asia summits in Nusa Dua on Indonesia's resort island of Bali.

The two reportedly focused on the economic matters in the surprise meeting that according to The Washington Post was "a late add-on to let the two men continue their conversation from a group dinner the night before."

Obama has been urging Beijing to adhere to international rules of conduct in the management of its currency and intellectual property policies, and also its territorial claims.

In a major policy speech to Australian lawmakers this week, during which he detailed an expansion of the US military presence in the region, Obama said:

"The main message that I've said, not only publicly but also privately to the Chinese, is that with their rise comes increased responsibilities. It's important for them to play by the rules of the road, and in fact, help underwrite the rules that have allowed so much remarkable economic progress to be made over the last several decades … There are going to be times when they're not, and we will send a clear message to them that we think that they need to be on track in terms of accepting the rules and responsibilities that come with being a world power."

During his swing through Asia, beginning with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Hawaii, Obama has announced steps to expand trade and military cooperation with Asia-Pacific nations that share U.S. concerns over China’s. 

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However, Saturday's meeting between Obama and Wen came at Wen’s request, Bloomberg reported.

The two men "spoke about currency and business practices," news reports cited White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon as saying in Bali.

According to the Washington Post:

Obama stressed the importance of China adjusting the value of its currency, which the United States contends is deeply undervalued.

“We have a very complicated and quite substantial relationship with China across the board,” White House National Security Advisor Tom Donilon told reporters after the session.

“We do have economic issues, they are around the proper contribution that the Chinese make to global growth and that goes to currency and other policies."

Donilon reportedly also said the discussions “briefly” touched on the South China Sea, where territorial disputes have raised tensions between China and its neighbors.

On Friday, according to The New York Times, Wen warned the US against a military expansion in the region, saying that "outside forces should not, under any pretext" interfere in a regional fight over the control of the South China Sea.

Tom Hayden, a former State Senator writing in the Huffington Post this week, suggested that Obama — by announcing the deployment of 2,500 Marines to Australia in the near future, a move seen as hedging against China's rise in the region — had begun a new Cold War with China.

Just as some might wonder what the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is doing in Afghanistan, one might wonder what the United States Navy is doing in the China Sea. Call it imperialism, globalization or great power politics; the new strategy is a replica of the eighty-year Cold War against the Soviet Union.