Obama's remarks on China are rhetoric, some say
His letter to a textiles group raises a few eyebrows among analysts, but they note that China has been largely ignored in the election thus far.
Reporting from Beijing — China is watching its small, last-minute appearance in the final days of the U.S. presidential election with concern, but it also knows enough about American elections to assume this is mostly campaign rhetoric driven by an appeal to blue-collar voters.
And, all things being relative, it's better to have a late cameo role than to be a punching bag for months on the stump as has been the case in earlier contests, analysts say.
Sen. Barack Obama vowed in a letter released Wednesday to use "all diplomatic means" if elected to stop China from gaining an unfair trade advantage in global markets by manipulating its currency. In comments addressed to the National Council of Textile Organizations, the Democratic candidate also vowed to step up enforcement against unfair trade practices and increase resources to the nation's primary trade watchdog, the U.S. trade representative.
"I think this is just part of election politics," said Mei Renyi, director of American studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University, which has trained generations of Chinese diplomats. "He was writing to a textile group. At this point, I'm not too concerned."
Others said there's a long history of American candidates realizing, once in office, how much China and the U.S. need each other and how it's best to move slowly when leveling criticism. "Both Obama and [Sen. John] McCain are very smart," said Jia Qingguo, an international-relations professor at Peking University. "Once one of them gains power, they'll realize that issues are more complicated than they thought, that a more reasoned approach is needed."
Some China watchers in the United States were less sanguine about the Wednesday development. "I'm disappointed but not surprised that Obama started dissing China for our economic ills," said Richard Baum, director of China studies at UCLA. "He's competing for votes among white, working-class males in battleground states -- the very people who have been hurt" by China's rise.
China has traditionally favored a Republican in the White House. President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger's surprise overture helped break decades of Chinese isolation. And the GOP's more laissez-faire economic policies have generally meant fewer human-rights headaches, from Beijing's perspective, and less focus on lost manufacturing jobs or its huge trade surplus.
