Obama's Visit To China

[SallyLightfoot]

I read about that as well, and although it is disappointing, it doesn't surprise me. We often tiptoe around the issues of human rights and taiwan, as well as tibet. G.W. Bush did the same, of course, but he found the courage to argue for religious freedom and tolerance (i.e., for christians in China).

<a href="http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/11/18/chastened_in_china" target="_new">Foreign Policy: Chastened in China</a><blockquote>... Hence Obama's modest demeanor in Beijing. No president is going to be able to lay down the law on human rights, exchange rates, or sanctions on Iran when China owns over a trillion dollars in U.S. assets, when the U.S. economy is on life support, and when the American military is mired in two losing wars. Until we get our house in order over here, nobody should expect China to be especially responsive to our wishes or expect its leaders to view the "American model" as especially appealing. An wide-open marketplace of ideas hardly looks attractive when the result is the intellectual ascendancy of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

The follies of the past eight years were the greatest gift the United States could have given Beijing, and Obama's conduct in Beijing was the inevitable result. And if we keep doing what we've been doing (see under: Afghanistan, Middle East, etc.), I wouldn't expect things to change.</blockquote>