Tag: Barack Obama

  • Is the 'pivot' to Asia a bluff to distract from wars?

    Amitai Etzioni argues that the pivot is something like a “bluff,” and is motivated by election-year efforts to divert attention from other foreign policy questions—the actual conflicts in the Middle East. He points to the challenge of getting the Chinese government to understand the domestic drivers of U.S. foreign policy, and also notes that the…

  • Key U.S.–Japan meeting overshadowed by U.S.–China diplomacy

    BEIJING — As Japanese Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko visited the White House Monday, the continued strength of the U.S.–Japan relationship was a central message. But this first Washington summit of U.S. and Japanese leaders since the Democratic Party of Japan took control in 2009 was overshadowed in the transpacific news cycle by the U.S. relationship…

  • Xi Jinping in Washington: A roundup/liveblog

    This post will be was continually updated today as I find found good or interesting material on Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House, the State Department, and the Pentagon. 4:00 p.m. Last update today. Off to CFR and then offline for the evening. The White House has posted a transcript of…

  • Asia and the world in the State of the Union

    With a domestic economic focus expected to anchor the evening, the prepared text of U.S. President Barack Obama’s 2012 State of the Union speech (according to WSJ) is similar to last year’s in its emphasis on Asia. At least measured by the crude “word count” metric, China is mentioned five times, just over last year. Like…

  • Two plausible views of Xi Jinping's rise prove we're clueless

    Is Chinese Vice President and presumptive next President Xi Jinping a hard-liner who will return China to confrontations with the west? Or could it be that only a hard-liner could convince domestic nationalists that a more cooperative stance is beneficial to the CCP and the Chinese people? Bruce Gilley argues Xi could end the reform…