Obama is clearly walking a fine line in his visit to China. It is in the interests of the whole world that the U.S. and China find ways to cooperate. Still, the Chinese government can be pretty brutal in terms of human rights. Obama has to touch both bases. You can imagine the exchange with President Hu where Obama says, "I'll talk about all the good things we're doing together and how well we're getting along, but I'm going to have to whack you on some human rights issues, OK?" And Hu says, "Sure, and I'll whack you about your outrageous deficits that are going to kill us in terms of the debt we hold for you. Deal?" Obama says, "Deal." And off they go to the press conference.
Still, I have to say that Obama's response on the Internet did take the obsequiousness a step too far. No wanting to say that he opposes the Chinese government's censorship of web sites because that would, in effect, accuse them of same, he said:
"I'm a big supporter of non-censorship."
C'mon Barack. Though I strongly support engagement with China, even I think that was weak.
Still, I have to say that Obama's response on the Internet did take the obsequiousness a step too far. No wanting to say that he opposes the Chinese government's censorship of web sites because that would, in effect, accuse them of same, he said:
"I'm a big supporter of non-censorship."
C'mon Barack. Though I strongly support engagement with China, even I think that was weak.
No comments:
Post a Comment