It's nice to see some things don't change. The headline?
"Under Obama, US-China ties may face shaky start"
"Under Obama." So, it's President Obama's fault then? Why?
In his inaugural address Tuesday, President Barack Obama spoke of how earlier generations of Americans had "faced down fascism and communism." China's state broadcaster quickly faded out the audio of its live broadcast, the camera cutting back to a flustered studio anchor.
Then, on Thursday, Obama's choice to lead the Treasury Department, Timothy Geithner, wrote that Obama believes China is "manipulating" its currency, which American manufacturers say Beijing does to make its goods cheaper for U.S. consumers and American products more expensive in China.
Geithner's comments could anger Chinese officials, who closely follow U.S. political rhetoric and frequently decry what they consider foreign interference in China's internal affairs.
So, China is a communist regime that violates human rights and manipulates their currency in a manner that hurts us. We've mentioned this to China. China is upset we've noted what China does.
And it is our fault, it seems. Not China's for continuing to act as a communist-run dictatorship.
The writer quotes a man who is so in the tank for North Korea that I can't believe anybody would listen to the man on anything:
Selig Harrison, director of the Asia program at the U.S.-based Center for International Policy, said it was "very ill-advised for the new administration to confront China as if this were 10 years ago and we were in a strong financial position internationally."
Here's a sampling of my comments on Harrison.
It's almost as if the world really wasn't looking for a replacement for President Bush to finally start cooperating with us. I mean, it's almost as if President Bush was just the excuse some countries made to get a free ride on our security spending and trade policies.
