Barack Obama, the US Democratic presidential hopeful, has warned China that if elected he could restrict access to US markets if Beijing does not stop manipulating the value of its currency.
Obama told workers in Pennsylvania on Monday that China had to respect trade rules if it was to act as "positive force" for the world economy.
Gotta love it. I particularly like the automatic assumption that China is improperly "manipulating" its currency and that this should be grounds for some sort of retaliatory trade action. Hmm, I wonder what sort of audience this was? Maybe a teachers' group? Firefighters? Perhaps an environmental lobbying organization?
Nope. The audience was comprised of "United Steelworkers union members and other industrial workers." You know, the steel industry, for which the Bush Administration broke WTO law a few years ago to give them a break from foreign competition. Remember how Bush pandered to folks in Ohio and Pennsylvania in a run-up to the 2004 election? Yeah, this is familiar stuff, isn't it?
Free trade advocates are being told not to worry, because none of the presidential candidates actually believes this protectionist rhetoric and will go back to supporting Liberal principles once the election is over. That's right, whip the public into a frenzy and then drop the issue. I appreciated the cynicism (really I do), but I worry about the carryover in negative public opinion. You can't just demonize a country for several months straight and then say "Forget about it. That was just a campaign thing. China is actually our friend. Be nice now."
Bullshit — I've lived in Beijing long enough to know something about nationalist sentiment, and it's not something you can just turn on and off like a switch.
Update: Oops. Looks like any blog criticism of Obama is like opening a door and inviting racist pinheads to post comments to your blog – or attempt to do so in this case (I moderate). I'm sure they all understand the nuances of international trade and monetary policy. Heh heh.