President Barack Obama’s campaign heads to the Pacific and Asian corners of the world this week where his public relations crew will produce a symphony of visuals for American voters. The nine day trip will include visits to San Diego, Hawaii, Australia, Bali and Indonesia. (more)
HONOLULU (AP) — President Barack Obama heads into a day of heavy diplomacy in his native Hawaii with some of the United States’ most important and complicated allies, the start of a nine-day tour of the crucial and growing Asia-Pacific region. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will make his first trip to Asia as Pentagon chief later this month, as the U.S. works to bolster its relations with countries in the region. (more)
Henry Kissinger’s January 13, 2010, column in the Washington Post, “Avoiding a U.S.-China cold war,” lays out the former secretary of state’s vision for the future of U.S.-China relations on the eve of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States. In classic Kissinger style, he offers a geo-strategic vision for how the world’s two dominant powers of the 21st century should get along. “The aim should be to create a tradition of respect and cooperation so that the successors of the leaders meeting now continue to see it in their interest to build an emerging world order as a joint enterprise.” A lofty goal, to be sure, but is building a new world order with China as a joint enterprise in America’s best interests? (more)
During his visit to New Delhi, President Obama gave the finishing touches to a ‘shared vision’ with India with regard to the Central Asia and Asia-Pacific regions. (more)
MUMBAI, India (AP) — The first elections in military-ruled Myanmar in 20 years were “neither free nor fair,” President Barack Obama said Sunday. (more)
In his October 20th “Inside the Ring” column, Bill Gertz of the Washington Times reports on the current China-policy debate within the Obama administration. He identifies two opposing groups — the “kowtow” group and the “sad-and-disappointed” group. Twenty-five years ago we called them the “convert-them-to-Christianity-and-democracy” group and the “let’s-just-outsmart-them” group. The U.S. players in the perennial China-policy debate change as administrations come and go, but the fundamental differences between the two classic approaches to China remain the same. (more)
Unemployment remains high, with Washington politicians clamoring for job creation. China is ever more confident, challenging the U.S. economically and politically. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) even has displaced America as the number one trading partner of such leading East Asian states as South Korea. (more)
The visit Sunday to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, cruising off coast of Vietnam, by high-ranking Vietnamese military and government officials was not a big story in the United States. Teams of U.S. military personnel have been conducting MIA-remains-recovery operations in Vietnam for 20 years. U.S.-Vietnam relations have been steadily improving since 1995 when the two countries normalized diplomatic relations. A U.S. warship visited Ho Chi Minh City in 2003. It was, however, big news in China, especially in the news reports circulated among China’s ruling elite. (more)
Following a gloomy year of falling air traffic demand and roiled financial markets, Boeing Co. raised its 20-year industry forecast for new commercial aircraft on Thursday to reflect the recovering global economy. (more)
When the pharmaceutical industry maps the world, here’s what it sees: 87% of its $773 billion in revenue comes from the U.S., Europe, and Japan, but sales in those places are stagnant, according to research firm IMS Health (RX). So where is growth to be found? (more)
Despite the diplomatically cordial meeting between the US and Chinese leaders and China’s likely decision to modify its currency, political pressure in Congress, and other quarters, for a more aggressive China policy is mounting. Beyond currency manipulation, various other issues continue to generate fierce debate on the increasingly complex and troubled U.S.-China relationship. (more)
U.S. fast-food giant McDonald’s Corp. plans to nearly double its presence in the world’s fastest developing economy over the next few years, senior officials from the company said Tuesday after they launched the first McDonald’s Hamburger University in China. (more)
MELBOURNE, Australia—Last week the United States concluded its first round of negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement here. The U.S. delegation was led by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, who engaged in trade talks with counterparts from seven countries: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. (more)
Trade has remained on the back burner this past year while the Obama administration has dealt with domestic issues, especially health care, with the little activity on the issue being largely negative. There was the early caving into pressure from organized labor over allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads (part of America’s contractual obligations under NAFTA), and another capitulation in September, when President Obama agreed to slap tariffs on Chinese tires at the behest of the steelworkers. (more)
Another round of navel-gazing about China’s “new” assertiveness and how the United States should respond to it is under way. (more)
