Filed under: world affairs
This might have easily gotten buried even if the midterms weren’t ruling the news, but regardless: Hillary Clinton’s trip to Asia this week highlighted (in a wonkish kind of way) the administration’s new tack with China.
Since diplomacy fell flat last year, the White House has begun building up soft alliances against Beijing. It is not an easy task, but it is nonetheless a serious pursuit that has garnered at least a modicum of success in the form of Vietnam’s drift away from its cold war ally (on Monday Clinton nudged Cambodia to do the same). Among leading powers, the effort has gained some traction but not as much as the US has hoped. As the New York Times reported, at an economic summit two weeks ago,
the United States won support for a concrete pledge to reduce trade imbalances, which will put more pressure on China to allow its currency to rise in value. But Germany, Italy and Russia balked at an American proposal to place numerical limits on these imbalances, a step that would have further isolated Beijing.
It’s hardly surprising that these negotiations have become so thorny, what with China playing the same game with some of the same countries (even in Europe, where it’s boosting ailing economies as far-flung as Greece and Ireland and eyeing meatier prospects in between).
It’s unclear yet what kind of fruit this new tactic will bear, but with President Obama joining other G-20 leaders for a summit in South Korea next week, get ready to hear all about it. At least now you’ll have a little background.
Update. Apparently the Daily Beast agrees that this was the #1 sleeper story of the week. It feels good to get back to real news…
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