U.S.-China Relations Ahead of the State of the Union Address
“President Obama is a gifted orator, and one who chooses his words carefully. East Asia is unlikely to be featured significantly in his upcoming State of the Union address, but we may get some sense of the president’s thinking on U.S.-China relations. The president cannot really claim any foreign policy triumphs in the region, but neither can the administration be faulted with any major blunders. U.S.-China relations got off to a warm and fuzzy start, but by the end of 2009 the tensions lurking behind a rhetoric of cooperation were beginning to surface: Obama was criticized as soft, especially on trade issues, when he returned from his summit visit to Beijing; China was widely perceived as playing a spoiler role at Copenhagen, frustrating Washington’s hopes that combating climate change would become a new anvil on which to forge U.S.-China cooperation; and now the Google.cn controversy is fueling the flames of anti-China sentiment. Amid ongoing trade skirmishes, the impending decisions to sell arms to Taiwan and meet with the Dalai Lama will reintroduce the perennial conflicts. Obama will probably strive for a balanced tone as Washington looks for a way to combine collaboration with confrontation in the second year of Sino-U.S. relations under an Obama Presidency,” says John Delury, Associate Director of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations.
John is in New York. To arrange an interview, please contact the Asia Society communications department at 212-327-9271 or [email protected].