Zakaria argued that unlike past summits, the recent one between President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China was of substance and not talking points.
Zakaria, who could not find his own buttocks with both hands and a GPS signal, dismisses recent scandals and crises to praise the significance of the California summit:
National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon. He explained to me that the two teams agreed to a format that was a real break with the past: "Usually at meetings like these, each leader brings a set of talking points. This creates a format that highlights problems. This was different: We didn't come in with a set of complaints. The leaders came with ideas about opportunities. It created a completely different discussion and dynamic."
And what did they achieve?
Xi discussed his future internal goals and his slogan "China Dream"--no mention of China leaning forward on disputed borders all around China--and creating new disputes every year.
Obama discussed his first term and hopes for second term goals. One can assume a lengthy discourse on the meanings of "Forward" and "Hope and Change."
Oh, and they discussed the challenges and opportunities of world crises! Metternich, doff your hat, you diplomatic piker.
And they exchanged their biographical backgrounds. The Chinese also busted out the Moutai for toasts. Score!!! As a first date, that's a success, I guess. But a diplomatic achievement?
Notwithstanding his attempt to fluff this president's record, Zakaria even admits nothing much was achieved:
While the purpose of the meeting was to build trust rather than produce a set of results, progress was made on specific issues.
Given the build up of expectations that Zakaria held out, mere trust building seems so pedestrian. But while there were no results in this summit that was a break from the past, there was progress! I can hardly wait! What was the progress, pray tell?
Let's see. China again said their priority is a non-nuclear North Korea. But this time they mean it. Although they are too late to keep North Korea from going nuclear--that ship sailed--in a diplomatic world of child-sex-soliciting ambassadors, I guess the State Department calls this a success (but go easy on the Moutai).
And the other progress?
In the discussions on economics, contentious issues like cyberattacks came up, and each side stood its ground[.]
So China said they wouldn't stop and we said we wanted them to stop--and that counts as manly standing our ground? Good God, this is getting sad. Cyber-war was grouped with economic issues rather than national security so Zakaria could add that we proposed some mutually beneficial energy deals. So it all balanced out.
I did mention that we obviously failed to get China to back off from cyber-warfare on us. So diplomatic progress in no way describes this issue.
Surely there is more to this hail-worthy summit?
Ah, foreign policy. This is where Zakaria pretends to have expertise. China, he says, was "impassioned" about their position on pushing Japan around.
Which means China won't stop trying to intimidate Japan and gain the Senkaku Islands.
Wow. I stand in the shadow of diplomatic giants. Learn me some more, Fareed!
And China stopped complaining about our pivot, he says. Maybe that's because the Chinese finally realized that the spin of the pivot doesn't match facts on the ground (or in the seas). I'd count that a failure. But that's me.
In the end, this meeting is counted as a foreign policy triumph because we established good will with China:
This is mostly rhetoric and atmospherics. "The true test of this summit will be in two or three or five years," Donilon acknowledged, "when this background goodwill has to get translated into specific actions on both sides."
What the Hell. Bonus points since President Obama didn't throw up on Xi, I guess. I'm feeling generous.
Yeah, alleged good will and a buck will get us a cup of coffee in Peking the next crisis. Conveniently, judging this Outreach to the Han World will be put off until after President Obama has left office. So for now sycophants can hail the achievement.
If Zakaria wants a job in the Obama administration, I suggest court jester.
God, two Zakaria brain spasms in one week to address. I'm being punished for something.
UPDATE: Hey, here's some increasingly impassioned talk about Okinawa!
The Chinese government itself has not asserted a claim to Okinawa or the other isles in the Ryukyu chain. But the seminar last month, which included state researchers and retired officers from the senior ranks of the People’s Liberation Army, was the latest act in what seems to be a semiofficial campaign in China to question Japanese rule of the islands.
I'm sure our newly forged good will with China will end this budding misunderstanding.
