By George Neumayr on 11.19.09 @ 6:09AM
In Asia, he plays pander bear and last emperor.
The White House tells reporters that America's relationship
with China "is at an all-time high." Why? Are the Chinese
impressed that Obama hires Marxists like Van Jones and admirers
of Chairman Mao like Anita Dunn? No, the reason for the cozy
relations is that America's debt to China has reached an all-time
high, and so Obama had no choice but to play the pander bear in
Asia though he would prefer to emulate its old emperors.
He offered gaudy praise of China's economy, "an
accomplishment unparalleled in human history," and soft-pedaled
its record on human rights. The same moral relativism which
excuses the human rights abuse of abortion at home crept into his
remarks abroad: "It's very important for the United States not to
assume that what is good for us is automatically good for
somebody else. We have to have some modesty about our
attitudes towards other countries."
America needs to make "progress" too, he reassured the
Chinese, asserting that "old-fashioned ideas about the role of
women in society" continue to bedevil the U.S.
Suddenly, female feticide in China and reluctant housekeeping by
American males were on the same moral plane.
Of much more interest to the Chinese than his musings on
sexism is whether or not Obama can pay their loans back. While it
may impress them in the abstract that his recently departed
communications director counted Chairman Mao as one of her two
favorite political philosophers, they would rather lend to
reliable capitalists than aspiring Maoists.
According to
Reuters, Chinese officials fear that Obama's socialist-style
health care could cause their massive loans to go up in
smoke.
"It turns out the Chinese are kind of curious about how
President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plans would impact
America's huge fiscal deficit. Government officials are using his
Asian trip as an opportunity to ask the White House questions.
Detailed questions," wrote James Pethokoukis. "Boilerplate
assurances that America won't default on its debt or inflate the
shortfall away are apparently not cutting it. Nor should they,
when one owns nearly $2 trillion in assets denominated in the
currency of a country about to double its national debt over the
next decade."
During the trip Obama crowned himself the "first Pacific"
president, having taken his first steps as a tot in Hawaii and
spent quality time in Indonesia. But "First Pacific" sounds more
appropriate as a name for his off-shore debt program.
George Bush Senior's trip to Asia is remembered for his
episode of vomiting on its leaders at a state meal; Obama's will
be remembered for bowing to them. His posturing took physical and
moral form: bowing to the emperor of Japan, pandering to the
bankers and tyrants of China.
The more undemocratic the ruler, the more deeply this
self-described egalitarian president bows before them. Obama is
committed to "equality" and forming a new world in its image, but
almost literally trips over himself before Saudi princes and
Asian emperors of ancient lineage.
The paradox is perhaps explained by his own taste for the
trappings of power and the autocracy that lurks behind his
egalitarianism. Grasping that his version of "equality" would
require absolute power to achieve, Obama is easily awed before
displays of it, even if only faded ones. He seems to envy the
power of those unencumbered by democracy, a foreshadowing that
the glorious new world he anticipates will more likely mirror the
grimness of the old one.
His totalitarian hosts in China ludicrously serenaded him
at a state dinner with the song, "We are the World." But Obama
isn't interested in world democracy; he prefers to play its
Caesar.
One of the photos used on the White House website from the
trip captures his sense of self: Cleared of any one who might
spoil the shot, he appears alone on the Great Wall, striding it
solemnly in majestic solitude as the weight of the world rests on
his shoulders.
topics:
Barack Obama, China, Asia
