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- The Chinese were clearly pleased with Obama's visit.
The overall effect was to further the dangerous notion that China is a
reliable future world partner in peace and growth. Nothing could be further
from reality. I consider China even more dangerous in the long-run than
Russia. China will survive as a world hegemon even as Russia is defeated
in the coming world war.
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- Not only did Obama break with Western diplomatic protocol
by bowing before his hosts (Kow Towing), but he only gave one token mention
of "universal rights" and did not criticize the government at
all, nor push for greater openness on China's purposes for remilitarization.
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- As Reuters noted, the Chinese Communists could barely
wait for Obama to leave so they could proceed with the business of suppressing
dissent. "A student leader of China's 1989 pro-democracy movement
[Zhou Yongjun] who has long lived in the United States went on trial in
China on Thursday, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama finished a visit
that [failed to] raised human rights. Zhou, 42, faces charges of financial
fraud involving a bank in Hong Kong, but Zhang and other supporters say
the charges were a pretext to punish him for his years of rights activism.
He was handed [betrayed] to Chinese police by authorities in Hong Kong,
leading to his detention for nearly a year, Zhang and Hong Kong rights
activists said last month.
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- Only the French AFP News site covered the discontent
of dissidents in China over Obama's lackluster performance. "Obama
spoke about his belief in 'universal rights' during a town hall meeting
with Chinese youth in Shanghai on Monday and again Tuesday at a press conference
with President Hu Jintao, but dissidents said it was not enough... and
left many political dissidents -- those who were not locked up -- disappointed.
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- "'At first, I had a lot of hope for human rights,
for Tibet and for Xinjiang,' said female Tibetan writer Woeser, who goes
by only one name and is a vocal critic of China's policies in the Himalayan
region. But President Obama only touched upon these issues, without insisting
on anything. Even if he brought them up, he did it without force -- it
was very disappointing,' she told AFP."
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- Even in economic negotiations, the US had no clout in
getting China to revalue the Yuan higher (it is currently pegged to the
dollar, so as the dollar goes down the Yuan goes down, making Chinese exports
more competitive). Sadly, the US can no longer bargain from a position
of financial strength--the dollar is the laughing stock of the world. As
the Economist noted, "Chinese officials have become bolder in standing
up to Washington. 'We don't think that it's good for the world economic
recovery, and it is also unfair, that you ask others to appreciate while
you depreciate your own currency,' said a spokesman for the Ministry of
Commerce on November 16th. The previous day Liu Mingkang, China's chief
banking regulator, blasted Washington for its low interest rates and for
the falling dollar, which, he claimed, was encouraging a dollar carry trade
and global asset-price bubbles."
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- In fact, the dollar's weakness has presented a tough
problem for other exporting countries. They can't seem to debase their
currency fast enough to keep pace with the dollar's debasement, and they
are seeing the relative price of their export products go up--damaging
export sales. As Bloomberg noted, "... the slumping dollar, is proving
more than central banks can handle. South Korea Deputy Finance Minister
Shin Je Yoon said yesterday the country will leave the level of its currency
to market forces after adding about $63 billion to its foreign exchange
reserves this year to slow the appreciation of the Won. Governments are
amassing record foreign-exchange reserves as they direct central banks
to buy dollars in an attempt to stem the greenback's slide and keep their
currencies from appreciating too fast and making their exports too expensive."
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- Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution
permitted.
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- Cite source as Joel Skousen's World Affairs Brief http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com
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- World Affairs Brief, 290 West 580 South, Orem, Ut 84058,
USA
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