Why China wasn’t a campaign issue

“China and the United States share broad common interests and important responsibilities on a wide range of major issues concerning the well-being of humanity,” Hu wrote. “To grow long-term healthy and stable China-U.S. relations serves the fundamental interests of our countries and peoples and is of great significance to the maintenance and promotion of peace, stability and development in the world.”

No doubt, an identical message would have been sent to McCain had he emerged as the victor. A sophisticated observer, editor Li Datong, has said that his government felt American “policy toward China will not show a big difference no matter which party wins” and that “It is impossible that the next president will make a big change in China policy.”

This observation accurately reflects the historical record. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all said during election campaigns that they would change their country’s China policy, only to find after the election that there is little that they can do differently.

Taiwan’s president Ma Ying-jeou, too, sent greetings to Obama. But Taiwan, being much smaller, is a little less confident of its ability to win Washington’s support, especially at a time when the United States may be increasingly dependent on Beijing’s cooperation. Looking at the bigger picture, Obama’s priorities in his first 100 days are unlikely to be China or Taiwan but rather dealing with the badly faltering economy, handling the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, dealing with a potentially nuclear Iran and the face-off with Russia. Given the global economic and political environment, the new president is unlikely to spend much time on the cross-strait situation. After all, there is no impending crisis. And that may not be a bad thing.

Columnist Ching can be reached at Frank.ching@gmail.com

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