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Updated Wednesday, December 2, 2009 9:34 am TWN, By Lydia Lin, The China Post

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U.S. doing little to lead; trade policy not priority

Niksch saw Obama's timidity towards China as a weakness. He argued that Obama could have used the ruling on Chinese tires and imports to the States as means to extend “real warning” to China on the currency issue but “Obama did not do those things.”

Aldonas described Obama's pragmatic approach to diplomacy as “a lot of courtesy shown, no substance as the result of it.”

He added that the trip was not about U.S. and the interest of its allies, but public image. Kurlantzik said Obama, in his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, had traded off U.S. and Taiwan issues — including human rights — in order to focus on the more “paramount” global issues, such as the environment, economy and security.

“Obama took the weakest position on human rights, prioritizing global issues in ways that George W. Bush didn't,” said Kurlantzik, adding that there was no good reason why the U.S. President did not visit the Dalai Lama on his Asia trip.

Aldonas believed America will no longer lead, specifically in trade policy, as the power-shift has disabled the administration as an advocate for further trade liberalization.

While the U.S. will not sign a Free Trade Agreement with Taiwan due to domestic trade politics and the complications and instability a bilateral agreement would create in the cross-strait region, Aldonas did say that economical progress between China and Taiwan opens up different possibilities.

“A conversation between China, Taiwan and the United States about the nature of how our three economies and how they interrelate ... can drive positive changes in the U.S. economy and benefits us on the trade side, so that might be the possibility,” Aldonas said.

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