"We All Know that Obama was humiliated and stonewalled by the haughty Chinese leaders,

[pampango]

in contrast to the titanic American presidents of yore who spoke sternly to Mao and his successors and therefore always got just what they wanted in Beijing. Richard Cohen of the Washington Post has reminded us of his fecklessness again (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/23/AR2009112302897.html.)"

"...my favorite newspaper of all, the (state-controlled) China Daily, has just indicated in its November 25 edition that China's recent year-long freeze on the value of the RMB may be about to end. (Thanks to my friend Jeremy Goldkorn, of Danwei.org in Beijing, for the tip.) If Obama had "demanded" this in public, or insisted that it be announced while he was standing next to Hu Jintao in Beijing, his "toughness" might have received better one-day coverage in the U.S. press or on SNL. But the chances of his getting what he was after would be nil. ... This news story is not conclusive but does support rather than weaken the long-game approach."

"2) We All Know that the Shanghai town hall was an embarrassment, because the audience was packed with young Communist Party stalwarts who could be depended on to ask anodyne questions. But remember the moment when Obama turned to Ambassador Jon Hunstman and said more or less, "Jon, did any questions come in via the internet?" I now have heard from enough different informed sources to be comfortable saying that the Chinese government did not know this was coming, and that the ensuing discussion about the Great Firewall was not at all according to their script."

"3) Most Americans don't know about the Southern Weekend interview -- the one interview Obama gave to a Chinese publication, and not to the People's Daily or CCTV but to a Guangzhou-based paper that is famed in China for its muckraking exposes of corruption and abuse. It would be as if a visiting head of state passed up CBS and the NYT and spoke instead only to Frontline or Mother Jones. The Obama team was well aware of what their meeting with Southern Weekend would symbolize -- not necessarily to the traveling press but to the educated population of China. As the government official I have previously quoted explained to me, "We wanted to highlight an edgy, aggressive Chinese paper that has run stories that others don't run. That was meant to be a statement encouraging serious journalistic effort in China.""

"As Jason Dean explained in the Wall Street Journal and Jeremy Goldkorn did in Danwei, the authorities then interfered with the distribution of Southern Weekend in a comicly ham-handed way. For instance, they (apparently) tore out pages containing Obama's interview from copies headed for foreign news bureaus -- but let them in for ordinary Chinese readers. The government official said, after marveling at the crudeness of the censorship, "I read a piece somewhere saying how naïve we were thinking we could get it out that way. But we did get a message out to a fair number of people. Did we expect it to be uncensored? No. But again think what the episode shows about the American government, and the Chinese."

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/11/last_words_on_obama_and_china.php

James Fallows' latest "behind the scenes" look at Obama's trip to China.

[babylonsister]

1. Your post is confusing to me. Are you promoting Cohen's pov or

Fallows'? I can't tell who owns which quotes.

I've read and posted a bit about Fallows' series, and he disputes most everyone who criticized Obama in China. Since he's lived there, I tend to believe Fallows.

[pampango]

3. They're all quotes from Fallows. Cohen's stuff is at the WP link.

Fallows does have insight into how China operates that someone who hadn't lived there for a long time wouldn't have. :)

[babylonsister]

4. OK, thanks! nt

[Hannah Bell]

2. The US owes 800 billion to China. It owes 2 TRILLION to US workers.

The debt to China could be repaid in four years by rescinding the Bush tax cuts to the top 1%.

"China" = foreign investment by US, Japanese & European corps.

2006*

Share of exports by firm ownership in China's total exports:

Wholly Foreign Owned: 39.3%

Joint Venture Firms: 18.6

State Owned Firms: 19.8

Collectively Owned Firms: 4.3%

Private Firms: 18%

http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/1524


China was thoroughly penetrated by foreign capital before Mao took over, & it still is.

The China card is a scam to crack the whip on workers & make super-profits for capital.