China and the Candidates: Barack Obama
November 13, 2007
". . . increasingly, the center of gravity in this world is shifting to Asia. Japan has been an outstanding ally of ours for many years. But, obviously, China is rising and it's not going away. They're neither our enemy nor our friend. They're competitors."
Barack Obama, South Carolina 2007 Democratic primary debate, on MSNBC Apr 26, 2007
This statement pretty much sums up Barack Obama's perspective on China with one key point: China is a force to be reckoned with. At first glance, this logic doesn't really differentiate Obama from other candidates.
With a rapidly developing economy, increased trade with the U.S., expanding military, and vibrant population, our relationship with China is among, if not the most significant in terms of U.S. foreign policy. If Obama believes that there is a power shift to Asia, how would he handle relations with China as president?
Looking into his record as a senator sheds some light on this issue. First of all, the trade imbalance with China has been cause for concern. This June Obama agreed to co-sponsor a bill that would pressure China to revalue its currency, or "provide for identification of misaligned currency, require action to correct the misalignment, and for other purposes."
Obama also sent a critical letter to Secretary of Trade Henry Paulson, demanding that the U.S. administration take a harsher stance against China's currency and the trade imbalance. He writes:
"The People’s Republic of China has manipulated its currency for years in order to gain an unfair advantage over the United States in trade. Unfortunately, the Administration has failed to effectively challenge or change China’s behavior. . . Your department’s refusal to take action against China raises serious questions about the Administration’s commitment to protecting the interests of American businesses and American workers."
Another potential area for competition remains education, and Obama maintains that the size of the educated workforce in China and India will give U.S. graduates a run for their money. During his commencement address at Knox College in 2005, Obama told graduates:
"China is graduating four times the number of engineers that the United States is graduating. Not only are those Maytag employees competing with Chinese and Indian and Indonesian and Mexican workers, you are too. Today, accounting firms are e-mailing your tax returns to workers in India who will figure them out and send them back to you as fast as any worker in Illinois or Indiana could."
Many in the China ex-pat community are excited about the prospect of an Obama administration, even uniting in a group called Americans in China for Obama '08. While they're optimistic about a potential Obama presidency, it would be interesting to see how that presidency would ultimately play out.
While Obama so far says he sees China primarily as "competition" the fact is, he's in a competition of his own, and many of the people who can vote for him are those who might feel like they're losing out to China.
I doubt that Obama will use the image of "evil, Communist China" as a tool to pander to voters, but we'll probably be hearing more about how America can become a greater force to crush the growing Chinese competition.
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