China Needs a Makeover

November 16, 2008 by Jonathan C. Movroydis | Filed Under China | Leave a Comment 

James Fallows of The Atlantic thinks that China is counter-productive in its rise as it does a lousy job of selling its values to the world.

Senator Obama on China

October 29, 2008 by Drew Thompson | Filed Under China, Election 2008 | Leave a Comment 

Like Senator McCain, Senator Obama has assembled a team of experienced and mainstream advisors who advise him on foreign policy. His balanced policy statements on China and Asia reflect their combined expertice, charting a course for US-China relations that is unlikely to deviate from its current course. Obama likely benefits from his running mate’s experience – Senator Biden quips that he has forgotten more about foreign policy than most of his colleagues ever knew.

Like Senator McCain, Senator Obama has published finely crafted essays in Foreign Affairs and the American Chamber of Commerce in China’s magazine. Like McCain, he pledges to actively engage China while supporting our allies in the region, hold China acountable on their relations with “genocidal and repressive regimes” and “make” China a constructive partner on International Energy and Environmental Issues. (I am not sure anyone can “make” China do anything, but we can certainly encourage them to do the right thing, like continuing to gradually increase the value of their currency.)

During his debates with Hillary Clinton, I always had an ear tuned to their treatment of China and foreign trade, as they both walked a tight rope over a net filled with free-trading Canadians and labor unions. Senator Obama had the best gaff in my opinion at the height of the product safety crisis when he said he would ban Chinese toys. A little explaining from his friends clarified that he meant to say he would ban lead-painted Chinese toys. Thankfully, we will still have Christmas this year. At his acceptance speech at the convention, Obama said “China” only once, in reference to jobs being shipped overseas and toy safety.

One issue that stands out in a fact sheet issued by the Obama-Biden machine is a pledge to maintain vigilence and prepare for China’s military modernization through closer relations, doing “all we can to guarantee China’s rise is peaceful.” The fact sheet states:

Barack Obama and Joe Biden also favor expansion of military-to-military relations to improve transparency, broaden communication, and improve our understanding of the ultimate goals and motivations of China’s military development.

Building mil-mil relations with China is an opportunity the Bush administration has missed. While some critics claim that China learns more about the US when its delegations come to visit than vice versa, it is not the principle of having or not having relations that poses the problem. The challenge is to equip ourselves to engage China more effectively. Building Chinese language skills in the US military and government is one step. Changing the way we interact with Chinese counterparts in the military is another, and I imagine that some Obama advisors have a few ideas they might like to try out.

As I mentioned in my first post in this series, when I was a student in China in 1992, the US elections seemed very remote. Senator Obama has never been to the mainland before, so I assume China is conceptually remote to him too. If he gets elected, that will undoubtedly change.

Senator McCain on China

October 29, 2008 by Drew Thompson | Filed Under China, Election 2008 | Leave a Comment 

China has not been a major foreign policy talking point for either candidate in during the campaigns. On the one hand, this is disappointing, because the US relationship is complex, dynamic and critical. Both candidates recognize that China is “rising,” and it will be vital for the next President to engage China effectively, shaping China’s rise and positioning the US to adapt and adjust to China’s growth. On the other hand, it might be good, because campaign rhetoric targeting American ears is unlikely to be comforting to Chinese listeners, or actually reflect how policy will be crafted in the next administration. I am comforted by the fact that both candidates have assembled top-notch teams of experienced foreign policy experts to advise them on China and Asia policy.

But is there a difference in what their China policy might look like should they be elected? If I asked each candidate, I suspect they would both immediately say, “yes.” But when I parse what each has said, the differences are subtle.

Senator McCain has said the right things about getting our relationship with China right. Most of his remarks have focused on ensuring that China lives up to its responsibilities and is a reliable actor in the international arena. His 2007 article in Foreign Affairs addresses US-China relations in three paragraphs, highlighting opportunities as well as the challenges:

China and the United States are not destined to be adversaries. We have numerous overlapping interests. U.S.-Chinese relations can benefit both countries and, in turn, the Asia-Pacific region and the world. But until China moves toward political liberalization, our relationship will be based on periodically shared interests rather than the bedrock of shared values.

Senator McCain’s comments on China in speeches, at the debates and in fact sheets and essays have been measured and consistently recognize that mutual interests are balanced by concerns about China’s military modernization and a lack of transparency. He has also clearly stated his expectations that China realize its obligations on a number of fronts, including opening its markets to US goods and services, energy and climate change, proliferation and China’s relations with pariah states. Speaking to journalists at the World Economic Forum in 2007, his remarks were summed up as, “it’s time for China to step up and assume its responsibilities.”

China on the Candidates, the Candidates on China

October 28, 2008 by Drew Thompson | Filed Under China, Election 2008 | Leave a Comment 

As a student in China in 1992, there was no internet access, no international cable TV (after 1989, CNN was only available in five-star hotel rooms) and imported newspapers were days old and cost almost ten dollars. Friends at the U.S. consulate provided video cassettes of the presidential debates a few days after they occurred so we might have some idea what the candidates stood for.Mailing in my absentee ballot from China made the entire process feel very remote.

A few weeks later, I was standing on line for tickets at a train station at dawn, clutching a tiny short-wave radio listening to Voice of America report election results.The Chinese all around me who had been waiting in line with me hours before the station opened knew the US election was occurring, but it was an even more abstract concept to them. Educated elite and the top “America watchers” in China were anxious at the prospect of President George HW Bush, a former resident of Beijing, being deposed by a candidate who promised he would not, “coddle tyrants from Baghdad to Beijing.”

By the 2000 elections, globalization had taken root in China and for the first time, millions of Chinese followed the US election cycle closely, more freely expressed their opinions and increasingly recognized how intertwined US-Chinese political and economic relations had become. Looking back on eight years of US-China relations under President Clinton, most Chinese decided that even with many ups and downs, it was ending on a high. The campaign rhetoric of 1992 was incongruent, providing a lesson to Chinese about American politics.

By 2008, China surpassed the US in number of internet users, satellite dishes dot skylines in major cities and small villages, and growing numbers of Chinese are active consumers of international news and many follow the US election, fascinated by the personalities as much as the process.

Who do the Chinese want to win? It appears that Obama has captured the imagination of the many Chinese, and if they were permitted to vote, what limited polling data is available gives Obama a wide lead. One survey puts him ahead by 17%. The official English version of the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper reports that Obama is favored by a 75% margin in a poll conducted “by the US Embassy” on the China Daily web site.

Each night, as I return to my home in a battleground state, I am bombarded by mailings, fliers and TV ads. China is definitely not a prominent issue in either candidate’s mass media campaign, which is probably a good thing. The depth and complexity of the US-China relationship does not lend itself well to sound bites and fliers.

My next two blogs will take a brief look at what each of the candidates have said about China and what their respective China policy might look like should they be elected. That said, I, like many of my friends in China, have learned not to judge a candidate by what he says on the campaign trail, but by what he does once he sits in that leather chair in the Oval office.

Obama’s An Ox: We’ve Got THAT Going For Us

October 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Election 2008 | 1 Comment 

The “Economist“:

With a week to go and a poll lead of eight percentage points, by most measures Barack Obama is comfortably ahead in the presidential race in America. John McCain, however, could take heart from a less conventional predictor: his Chinese zodiac symbol. Mr McCain was born in the year of the rat, as were five presidents, including George Washington and Jimmy Carter. Pigs and snakes have been equally successful at getting to the top job. By contrast Mr Obama has been preceded by only three oxes, and one of those only made it thanks to the resignation of a rat.

Couldn’t resist that last bit, could you, guys?

Change In China

October 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Election 2008 | Leave a Comment 

“Asia Times” reports that Sen. Obama is making the sale in China.

Quemoy, Matsu, and Joe the Plumber

October 16, 2008 by Jack Pitney | Filed Under American Politics, China, Election 2008, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Few Americans remember Quemoy and Matsu, but they were a key issue in the 1960 debates between Kennedy and Nixon.  These Taiwanese-governed islands lie just off the coast of mainland China.  A couple of times during the 1950s, the communists had shelled these islands, only to stop when Eisenhower rattled American sabers.  During the second, third, and fourth debates, Nixon insisted that we should defend the islands while Kennedy said that they were strategically indefensible. 

Last night’s debate related to the Quemoy-Matsu exchange in a couple of ways.

Nixon did well on the issue, performing much better in the later debates than in the first.  But to the extent that the debates moved opinion, it was the first one that counted most.  Last night, McCain gave his best performance of the three debates, but will it make any difference on Election Day?  Probably not.

Quemoy and Matsu soon faded in the public mind.  Similarly, Joe the Plumber should enjoy his moment of fame, because he will disappear from the news very soon.  The difference is that defense of the islands was a genuine issue.  The mention of Joe the Plumber was a gimmick.  The focus on Joe is more evidence that the debates of recent elections were far less substantive than those of 1960.

 

Taiwan Grows Up

October 7, 2008 by Jonathan C. Movroydis | Filed Under China | 1 Comment 

Taiwan makes a dexterous and strategic move on its side of the Strait.

Nixon Is The New Barber Of Saville

October 3, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Culture, Music, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

“Nixon In China” composer John Adams has his new autobiography out. You can read about it here and listen to some of his compositions. Reports NPR:

Opera director Peter Sellars heard in Adams’ music the kind of drama and color that would work on the operatic stage. And he had an idea that he thought would be perfect for Adams called Nixon in China.

“Nixon in China introduced the world to a great opera composer,” Sellars says, adding that the work had “the kind of seriousness of that opening chorus that you feel comes out of Mussorgsky; this depth of feeling as the people wait in the pre-dawn, you know, to hear what their rulers are going to say. As well as, you know, the comic turns [of] Nixon’s opening ‘News’ aria. Not since Rossini has this kind of comic touch just lit up the stage.”

Pres. Bush is the New Nixon in China

September 28, 2008 by Jonathan C. Movroydis | Filed Under China, International Affairs | Leave a Comment 

According to the Japan Times, one bright spot of the Bush administration’s foreign policy is its relationship with China. Chinese Premier Hu Jintao has praised “the good momentum of the development of Sino-U.S. ties.” Ostensibly, in Nixon fashion, Bush 43 de-alienated and triangulated to make China a stronger strategic partner in the aftermath of 9/11.

We May Still Have It At The Nixon Library

September 26, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Taiwan News:

They were Premier Zhou Enlai’s favorite late-night snack. He loved White Rabbit candy so much he gave a bag to U.S. President Richard Nixon during his historic visit to China. But the iconic brand, beloved by generations of Chinese, took a hit after it was linked to the tainted milk scandal.

The Shanghai-based maker of the candy said Friday it had halted production because of suspected melamine contamination. The chewy vanilla-flavored White Rabbit sweets have already been pulled from shelves around Asia and in Britain.

The American Pioneer

September 23, 2008 by David Emig | Filed Under China, History, Republican Party, Richard Nixon, U.S. History, Watergate | Leave a Comment 

On the occasion of the 56th anniversary of the Checkers speech, it is appropriate to know that Richard Nixon has been a pioneer of much of what we know as modern American politics. Checkers after all marked the beginning of Richard Nixon’s significant presence onto the political landscape for the next 40 years—and beyond.

As we all know as well, the Checkers speech was the first of its kind in American history. It was a small victory for populism, as popular support decided the career of the young senator from California—rather than the party establishment and the top of the ticket.

Nixon learned an important lesson as a result of the speech. He didn’t need the media to convey his message, but could go straight to the people. The seeds of the Checkers speech can be found later on in his presidency in the Silent Majority speech. Nixon’s distrust of the media also found its true beginnings after the Checkers speech.

In many ways, RN also pioneered the modern vice presidency — transforming the office from John Nance Garner’s definition of ‘a bucket of warm spit’, to arguably the second more powerful man in the world — as personified by the current Vice President.

RN continued to be a pioneer during his presidential campaigns in American politics. As chronicled by Joe McGinnis in “The Selling of the President 1968”, Nixon’s successful run for President marked a new approach to campaigning. Led by advertising executives like HR Haldeman, there was almost a corporate control of message and image. This corporate campaign for the presidency has transformed into the modern era of spin in which we are familiar with today.

Among the obvious achievements of RN was going to the People’s Republic of China. However Nixon also pioneered the first look at universal healthcare in 1971. These issues are still with us today in our daily discourse on the campaign trail.

Unfortunately, RN was also a pioneer in one important respect. The first president of the United States to resign his office. In spite of his critics’ paranoid, RN did this intensity difficult task with grace, respect for the office, and ultimately honor for himself.  While it may be debatable whether or not Richard Nixon abused his power, it is not debatable to say that he was the first to be held accountable for it. He is a graphic example that no one is above the law.

Pioneers are not only the first to arrive and blaze a trail. In many respects, pioneers place their indelible stamp as well on the landscape. In American politics, Richard Nixon fits the criteria of an American pioneer.

TNN Interview With Commerce Official On China

September 19, 2008 by Jonathan C. Movroydis | Filed Under China, Economic issues, International Affairs, Nixon Library | Leave a Comment 

This morning I interviewed Mario Mancuso, U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security. Mancuso discussed the historical impact of Richard Nixon on the United States’ economic relationship with China, and the outcome of the 19th U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) hosted by the Nixon Foundation earlier this week.

When Birds Fly East Forever

September 17, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Guess the history of these birds:

Library Diplomacy

September 17, 2008 by Jonathan C. Movroydis | Filed Under China, Economic issues, International Affairs, Nixon Library, Nixon Library events | Leave a Comment 

At the Nixon Library on Tuesday, the United States and China arrived at major commercial agreements at the 19th annual JCCT (US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade) after extensive talks led by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez along with Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer representing the United States, and Vice Premier Wang Qishan representing China.

Among other items, of particular note was Vice Premier Wang Qishan’s (pictured above) speech during the afternoon press briefing. Qishan announced that China would lift its ban on U.S. beef imports, albeit by compelling the U.S. to consider more stringent regulatory health guidelines. Qishan also announced that China would also be lifting the ban on Avian flu related poultry in six U.S. states, and that it will lower the capital requirement for U.S. businesses by 50 percent. In sum, he re-affirmed China’s central commercial principle of its 30 year open-door economic policy:

We will follow the model of socialism with Chinese features.

Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez (above) also honored the 37th President’s diplomatic legacy in his remarks this afternoon:

Nixon and Mao started the fastest growing and largest economic relationship we have ever seen.

Today, two-way trade can be estimated at over $380 billion up from the $4 billion when China inaugurated its open economy 30 years ago.

Secretary Gutierrez also announced other “robust outcomes” from the conference including bilateral cooperation in solving statistical discrepancies in trade data and the establishment of 12 working groups to address - in part - issues involving intellectual property rights.

Secretary Gutierrez embraces Vice Premier Qishan during a light hearted exchange.

In light of more turbulent times on Wall Street, Secretary Gutierrez also addressed the impact of U.S. trade policy with China, emphasizing the importance of China’s $65 billion export market, and vital investment flow.

U.S. Trade Ambassador Susan Schwab also gave a short press briefing.

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer (pictured signing one of many agreements with a Chinese trade official), concluded the closing ceremony on a hopeful note:

Bring people together by trade is the most beautiful thing we can do.

For more information, check out the Department of Commerce’s outcome fact sheet from yesterday’s conference.

Sorry, Texas, But BBQ Won’t Cure All Ills

September 16, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Economic issues, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library | Leave a Comment 

Covering Sino-U.S. trade talks at the Nixon Library, the AP’s Gillian Flaccus:

[U.S. Commerce Secretary] Gutierrez said the U.S. delegation would press China on three issues Tuesday: market access, intellectual property rights protections and more transparency for American companies doing business in China.

After the morning session, Gutierrez said that another concern for U.S. farmers—convincing China to allow imports of U.S. beef—would not be resolved. That was despite an opening barbecue Monday in which the Americans served the Chinese delegation U.S. beef, chicken and pork as a bluegrass band played in the background.

China closed its markets to U.S. beef in 2003 after the first case of mad cow disease was found in the United States.

China Channeling Nixon

September 16, 2008 by Jonathan C. Movroydis | Filed Under China, International Affairs, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan (greeted by U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Trade Representative Susan Schwab) on Sino-American telations:

We all know it was the strategic decision by Richard Nixon that brought us to where we are today.

Awaiting Great Things (Not To Mention Lunch!)

September 16, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Economic issues, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library events | 1 Comment 

At 10:30 this morning, U.S. and Chinese officials were 90 minutes into their private talks in the Nixon Foundation Board Room. Meanwhile 30 reporters and photographers, including legendary AP lensman Nick Ut (right), awaited the start of the plenary session:

Every detail has been attended to in the Library’s East Room:

Members of the Library’s elite corps of volunteer Docents, including Dianne Sickles, were standing by to make this elite event go smoothly:

 

Getting To The Meet Of The Matter

September 16, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Nixon Library | Leave a Comment 

Security was tight this morning outside the Board Room of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation as trade talks got underway between Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and, for the U.S. side (left to right), Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab, Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, and Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer.

Fellowship (And Beef) Tonight; Hard Work Tomorrow

September 15, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library | Leave a Comment 

The Nixon Foundation hosted a dinner tonight for U.S. and Chinese trade conferees, who will meet tomorrow in the White House East Room at the Nixon Library, marking the 25th anniversary of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. U.S. beef exports to China are one of the items on tomorrow’s agenda, which may be why the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Susan C. Schwab, suggested we might host a BBQ under the stars with plenty of chicken, pork…and U.S. beef.

In his opening toast, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan made clear that he knows the American side will want to talk about China’s progress in protecting intellectual property rights. He also made clear that the Chinese would express their concerns about upheavals in U.S. financial markets. Here he listens to Ambassador Schwab over dinner.

Wang will be negotiating tomorrow with Schwab, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer, and (right) Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez, a native of Havana, Cuba who served as the youngest CEO in Kellogg’s history before joining the Bush Administration in 2005. At left is Kris Elftmann, Nixon Foundation chairman.

A high point of the evening was the unveiling before dinner of a plaque honoring 20 years of ongoing service to the Nixon Foundation of former Chairman Don Bendetti, who was assisted in his good work by six of his and Dorothy’s nine grandchildren.

From $4.4B to $415B In 25 Years

September 15, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Bush Administration, China, Economic issues | Leave a Comment 

Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez on today and tomorrow’s trade talks in Yorba Linda:

In 1983, a group of Chinese and American officials met in Beijing to work through issues related to a small, but growing, bilateral trading relationship. At that time, goods trade between our nations totaled $4.4 billion. Twenty-five years later our two-way trade reached $387 billion, and this year it is on track to surpass $415 billion.

The U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT), which grew out of that 1983 meeting, has become a vital mechanism of engagement between our two economies. This week in Southern California, leaders of the two countries will again come together to advance what has since become one of the world’s most important economic relationships.

Wang Qishan, China’s new vice premier, and a number of senior Chinese officials will meet with the U.S. delegation at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation in Yorba Linda, Calif. The library is a fitting venue, given President Nixon’s historic visit to the People’s Republic of China in 1972, paving the way for the normalization of relations between our two countries.

Where’s The Beef? At The Nixon Library

September 15, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Bush Administration, China, Nixon Library | Leave a Comment 

Reuters:

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The United States will press China to drop its 5-year-old ban on U.S. beef and take a tougher stand against piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. goods when top officials from both countries meet this week at the Richard Nixon presidential library in Yorba Linda, California.

“It’s really too early to say what progress we will have in the area of beef. But ag issues are on the agenda,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in an interview ahead of the talks that begin on Monday.

Like many countries, China closed its market to U.S. beef after the first case of mad cow disease was found in the United States in December 2003. The Bush administration hailed China’s conditional agreement in April 2006 to reopen its market but more than two years later, that still hasn’t happened.

A second U.S. trade official, speaking on condition he not be identified, said that conditions probably still are not right to resolve the beef spat.

The U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade is holding its 25th anniversary meeting in Nixon’s hometown to capture the symbolism of the late president’s historic 1972 trip to China to reopen relations, Gutierrez said.

He and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab lead the talks for the United States and Vice Premier Wang Qishan for China. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer and Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming will also attend.

The United States will be pressing China on “three big buckets” of concerns, Gutierrez said.

Those include China’s high rates of piracy and counterfeiting, a number of specific obstacles to imports of U.S. agricultural and manufacturing goods and opaque regulations that are a barrier to trade, he said. 

The Korean Republic of China

September 11, 2008 by Jonathan C. Movroydis | Filed Under China | Leave a Comment 

Without a definitive, albeit qualified successor, a committee of Chinese trained generals are poised to succeed the erratic, rogue, and ailing Kim Jong-Il, a prospect, which Gordon Chang argues, would seal the fate for the full democratization and unification of the Korean peninsula:

A collective military government would be a natural result of Kim Jong Il’s demise. Although he began in the 1980s to purge North Korean officials friendly to the Chinese, Beijing has for more than a decade cultivated Kim’s generals, some of whom now keep their personal assets in China. Moreover, at lower levels the links between the Korean People’s Army and the People’s Liberation Army are relatively strong, especially because junior officers are suspected of conducting unsavory business across their nations’ common border. In any event, it is Chinese aid that sustains Kim’s military, which “could neither bark nor bite” without Beijing. China provides some 90 percent of the North’s oil, 80 percent of its consumer goods, and 45 percent of its food.

The Chinese are so confident of their links to Korea that they have recently spurned initiatives from Seoul to talk about what to do in case of instability in the North. The turndown is an indication that Beijing does not believe it will have to implement its plans to send a military force south, establish order, and either annex the DPRK or, more probably, leave behind a compliant government. After all, it has already lined up its supporters in Pyongyang and sees little reason to either share information or let any other nation have access in the case of an emergency.

Whiff-Whaff By Any Other Name

August 30, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under China, Sports, UK Politics | Leave a Comment 

It’s always fun —and sometimes even informative— to keep track of the doings of London’s recently-elected Mayor Boris Johnson.

At a “Handover Party” in Beijing last week, he remarked on the completion of the Olympics there and the beginning of the countdown to London 2012.

In typically exuberant and deceptively disheveled fashion, he covered a number of topics and indulged in a little facetious jingoism.

Because we here at TNN have a highly raised consciousness where ping pong is concerned, Mayor Johnson’s remarks concerning the history of the game caught my eye. (You may enjoy his entire brief remarks or go directly to 2:49. But if you do, you will miss his reasons for not regretting the absence of the Pancreateon from Olympic competition.)

Thanking RN For Beijing

August 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

A letter to the editor writer says, “Thank Richard Nixon for the Beijing Olympics”:

Richard Nixon’s visit put a small crack in the Great Wall. Relations began, companies developed business and China made an amazing transformation in less than a generation. President Gerald Ford said that Richard Nixon was the best foreign policy president he had ever seen. Despite his other shortcomings, it is time to recognize one of his contributions.

Thank you Mr. President.

And here’s another.

Falling Chinese Infrastructure

August 21, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Democratic Party | 2 Comments 

Yao Ming and earthquake survivor and hero Lin Hao, 9

Hugh Hewitt’s criticism of this comment by Sen. Obama is on the mark:

Everybody’s watching what’s going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics. Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business you’re starting to think, “Beijing looks like a pretty good option.”

Merely to elaborate Br. Hugh’s thorough argument: (1) A thoughtful China hand tells me that while the PRC is celebrated for producing more engineers than the U.S. to keep pace with coastal China’s frenetic growth, on average they’re not as well-trained as ours. (2) Obama’s comment displays insensitivity to the suffering that persists in Sichuan Province, where 70,000 died in May, many of them crushed under school buildings to which “vastly…superior” doesn’t remotely apply. Writes Professor Zhi Wenjun:

The great disaster of the Wenchuan earthquake has evoked serious thinking by many people, especially on the quality of public construction, such as the phenomenon that many schools collapsed in the earthquake with serious casualties inflicted….In addition to the fact that the earthquake intensity went far beyond the state seismic fortification requirements in these regions, apparently the collapsed school buildings represented jerry-built construction projects.

The earthquake exposed extensive, fatal problems that exist in architectural design and construction in China.

U.S. View On Nixon Library Trade Talks

August 20, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library | Leave a Comment 

More on Sino-U.S. trade talks coming up at the Nixon Library:

U.S. trade officials plan to push their Chinese counterparts on market access, intellectual property rights and transparency when they hold high-level bilateral talks next month, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.

In an interview on the sidelines of a conference on competitiveness in the Americas, Gutierrez said the two sides will also likely continue negotiations launched in June towards a bilateral investment treaty.

Gutierrez will host the 19th session of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, or JCCT, along with U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Secretary of Agriculture Edward Schafer. Vice Premier Wang Qishan will lead the Chinese delegation for the first time. The two-day talks will be held at the Nixon Library, starting Sept. 15.

He said the specific agenda still has to be worked out, and that the Chinese officials will counter with their own list of priorities.

Hua Guofeng 1921-2008

August 20, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under China, In Memoriam | Leave a Comment 

Hua Guofeng, the Second Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, is dead at the age of 87.

Born in Shanxi province, he joined the Red Army when he was fifteen. He became a full Party member in 1938 and was assigned to Hunan province after the Communists took it over. He probably first met Chariman Mao when Mr. Hua was Party secretary in Chairman Mao’s birthplace Shaoshan.

He was named Deputy Prime Minister in 1975 and succeeded Zhou Enlai when he died the following year. When Chairman Mao died later in 1976, Mr. Hua succeeded him as the Party’s Second Chairman.

The newly-minted Chairman greeted RN when he revisited the PRC, as the guest of the government, in the fall of 1976. (There is no record of Chairman Hua expressing the same sentiment as Georges Pompidou at General DeGaulle’s funeral when he said to RN: “Enfin seuls.”)

Chairman Hua’s obituary outlines his life. An analysis of his career in the Telegraph (London) concludes that he was “a man who helped China to break with an unhappy past and yet remained tarnished by it.”

In an interview in 1983, RN described Chairman Hua as “stolid, tough–they’re all tough–strong, unimaginative. I thought he was a good party operator, but I did not think he had any kind of charisma that would have him last too long.”

Trade Talks In Yorba Linda

August 19, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Nixon Foundation, Nixon Library | 1 Comment 

Top-level trade talks slated for the Library’s White House East Room next month:

Among those in attendance will be U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan. Qishan served as president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympics.

They’ll discuss nuances in Sino-American trade relations at the conference Sept. 15 and 16. According to federal statistics, the United States has purchased $154 billion in Chinese goods and shipped $36 billion in merchandise across the Pacific just in the first half of this year.

Kobe’s Un”cool” NBC Moment

August 18, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, China, News media | 1 Comment 

In addition to raising some goosebumps, Kobe Bryant’s interview with Chris Collinsworth during Friday night’s Olympics coverage has also raised some hackles.

Collinsworth: Where does the patriotism come from inside of you? Historically, what is it?

Kobe: Well, you know it’s just our country, it’s… we believe is the greatest country in the world. It has given us so many great opportunities, and it’s just a sense of pride that you have; that you say ‘You know what? Our country is the best!’

Collinsworth: Is that a ‘cool’ thing to say, in this day and age? That you love your country, and that you’re fighting for the red, white and blue? It seems sort of like a day gone by.

Kobe: No, it’s a cool thing for me to say. I feel great about it, and I’m not ashamed to say it. I mean, this is a tremendous honor.

The NBC transcript adds the quotes around cool. But at least to these old eyes there isn’t much in Mr. Collinsworth’s demeanor (and I don’t mean the fact that he didn’t flex the index and middle fingers of both hands to add the quotes) to indicate that his use of the word was anything but straightforward. See for yourself.

Standing Up For Freedom — Everywhere?

August 14, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under China, Election 2008, International Affairs | Leave a Comment 

Pro-Taiwan blogger Michael Turton left a thoughtful (if critical) comment on my post linking South Ossetia with Taiwan. On his blog “The View From Taiwan,” he’d posited a link of his own:

Russia has also exposed the gigantic flaw in the US Russian policy — the Americans were not willing to go war with Russia over Georgia — especially since, as I suspect the future will reveal, the Russians have given them assurances that the oil will continue to flow. Many might now see the US, fresh off defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan, now defeated again in Georgia, because it appears that Russia has absolutely bitch-slapped the Bush Administration. China must be eying the US response, eying Taiwan, and judging accordingly.

I thought it was axiomatic that the U.S. wasn’t willing to go to war over Georgia, not least because Russia is a nuclear power. Should we have done so to make sure that the Chinese would take our assurances to Taiwan seriously? It would be costly indeed for the United States to promise to defend every free nation in the world with our military forces. Perhaps that is our call — though I doubt it. The American people deserve a substantive debate this fall on such vital foreign policy questions, when we get past Paris Hilton and finger-printing about the Iraq surge.

While visiting Michael’s site, check out these great photos from his walking tour with a blogging colleague around Taichung, Taiwan.

Good Stories Bear Retelling

August 14, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under China | Leave a Comment 

Kansas City Star sports columnist Joe Posnanski is —where else?— in Beijing. In today’s paper he reports about the role ping pong plays in everyday life in China — and how that helps explain the impact that the American ping pong team had when they arrived —as if from outer space after so many decades of non-communication— in the spring of 1971.

Historians have long marveled that the relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic China really began to defrost because of table tennis. Well, heck, why not? It’s a good game. It brings people together. You can see it here every single day.

Here we are in Chaoyang Park. It’s early morning in Beijing, the outline of an orange sun glows faintly through the clouds and haze, the humidity has not crawled out of bed yet. It’s a good time to be outside. But the basketball courts are empty. The soccer fields are empty. There are not too many people walking around. Instead, there are 19 outdoor ping-pong tables bolted to the concrete. People play on every single table.

“I have played ping pong for long time,” says Xuewen Jia just after she runs me from one side of the table to the other, making me ping and pong. “It is part of everything.”

I love that … it is part of everything. The table tennis lifestyle is a fascinating thing to see. Every morning, not long after the sun comes up, people show up in Chaoyang Park (or Sun Park). They build their mornings around it. They bring their own tabl