Obama's China kowtowing over security, trade issues

In the latest chapter of Team Obama's at-best-mediocre, teetering-on-the-disastrous foreign policy, the president and a slew of Cabinet secretaries roared into Asia like lions, promising a new era in U.S. diplomacy in the region. But they're leaving like pussycats — accomplishing, well, a whole lot of nothing so far.

So much for our “first Pacific president,” as Obama anointed himself at the start of the eight-day, four-country swing through Asia last week.

The lack of good news was starkest in China, where the United States faces a raft of critical issues that need addressing at the presidential level.

Sure, the joint statement that concluded the visit had a long list of possible areas of Sino-U.S. cooperation such as Chinese aircraft safety, public health, climate change and bumping up the number of Americans studying in the PRC. And the president, to his credit, did raise the issues of human rights and freedom of expression for the more than a billion Chinese. But a presidential visit should've delivered more.

Obama failed to make progress on the most important issue to the United States right now — economics and trade. We're experiencing a US$200-plus billion-a-year trade deficit with China, but no measure came out of the visit to ease that pain.

We could've seen an agreement to help level the playing field for U.S. firms doing business in China by reducing the various subsidies local firms receive from the central government, undermining foreign competitiveness in the PRC.

Or how about the undervalued Chinese currency, the Renminbi? Beijing fixes (“pegs”) the RMB's conversion rate against such other currencies as the dollar, instead of allowing it to float with the market. This makes Chinese goods cheaper here and American goods more expensive there.

This inequity adds to the trade deficit, allowing China to become the largest holder of U.S. debt — and adding to a series of imbalances that could be harmful to both countries in the long-run.

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