In China, 'Obama represents American spirit'
Posted: Monday, January 19, 2009 11:36 AM
Filed Under:
Beijing, China
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
In America, expectations may be high that, once President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated, change will come. But in China hopes are for the status quo.
This month, China has been celebrating 30 years of restored diplomatic relations with the United States. Amidst a series of high-profile events featuring visiting American political luminaries such as Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, the Chinese media have waxed rhapsodic about bilateral ties.
And the trot down memory lane has taken an extra tinge of nostalgia as the Chinese government watches Obama take over the American presidency.
 |
| Adrienne Mong/NBC News |
| Chinese are more focused on shopping for the upcoming Lunar New Year than on Obama's inauguration. |
Longing for the status quo
"Good private relations between the two top leaders have endlessly injected a vigor into bilateral ties," said the China Daily, a state-run newspaper, which noted that during his two terms President George W. Bush met Chinese President Hu Jintao 19 times. "The establishment of these viable communication mechanisms during Bush's tenure has helped reduce differences and enhance mutual trust between the two countries and push forward a healthy relationship."
Chinese officials express confidence that Sino-American relations will carry on as before. "China expected the new U.S. administration to show enough strategic vision and political wisdom, inherit and work from the good China legacies left by the earlier administrations," Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said at a two-day seminar reviewing past ties.
Some Americans agree. "My assumption [is] that we will have a continuation of what has essentially been a continuous U.S. policy since…the Jimmy Carter era toward China, but we haven't actually heard that from the president," said James Fallows, former Carter speechwriter and now national correspondent for the Atlantic magazine, at a panel discussion of U.S.-China relations last week.
But questions remain about whether Obama and his administration will be able to maintain goodwill in the face of a massive trade imbalance in challenging economic times. In fact, a word that has resurfaced in public discussions about the global economic crisis is "protectionism."
U.S. businesses have taken the lead here to reassure the Chinese.
"I caution the Chinese leadership not to react to every comment by every government official or every story in every newspapers or every pronouncement by a union official or by whom it might be, look at not what people say but what they do," said Thomas Donohue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who was also in town recently for the 30th year anniversary.
Especially comments made during a presidential election campaign. Those here who followed the U.S. election closely will remember that in late 2007 Obama proposed banning all toys made in China after a series of consumer safety scares. But Donohue was quick to dismiss those remarks, "We all hope they don't remember what was said over a two-year campaign."
 |
| Adrienne Mong/NBC News |
| Chinese shoppers hope the global economic climate will improve once Obama is in office. |
High hopes for Obama in China, too
Away from the realm of economics, there seems to be little interest in how Obama will fare. In the downtown shopping drag of Wangfujing, most people were more interested in last-minute shopping for gifts to bring back home for the new year holiday next weekend than in talking about the inauguration or the new American president.
Although no one said they planned to watch the ceremony, many said it was an historic event for Americans. "[Obama] represents American spirit, because he is a black man and America is a place that represents equal opportunity," said one shopper. "He gives everyone a new sense of hope."
And young Chinese seem very optimistic about Obama. "He seems much more open-minded," said Vicky, a teacher in Beijing. "Bush seemed aggressive, ready to take action instead of talking through problems first."
"I think [the] Chinese still want to see America as a leader, but [as] a leader who wants to listen, who wants to talk, and who doesn't want to add just his free will, and who wants to be responsible for its actions and its leadership," said Li Xin, an editor at Caijing, a weekly economic magazine. "And Obama seems capable of doing that."
