By Patricia H. Kushlis
I just returned from nearly a month in East Asia. My trip included
Shanghai, Singapore,
several places in Laos along the Mekong River from north of Luang Prabrang to the Cambodian border, and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City. at the Mekong's mouth. This was my first trip back to the region
since a three week tour of China
in 2004 and one of Vietnam and
Cambodia
in 2003. This is also why I haven’t posted much on WhirledView since I left the
US
on October 18.
The good news is that East Asia – with the exception of Japan – is coming out of recession far faster
than predicted and the turn-around is led by China. Much is due to the Chinese government’s domestic
pump-priming financed out of its huge reserves.
But the latest numbers indicate that Chinese private sector growth is also
increasing and that the country is set for 8-9 percent growth for 2009. (Photo left: Shanghai, Pu Dong, by PHKushlis 10-23-09)
The annual APEC (Asia and Pacific Economic Council) Summit took place in Singapore over the November 14-16 weekend. In reality, APEC began the weekend before:
delegates were being welcomed at the airport when we arrived there on November 4 with special passport
control lines reserved for them.
Ministerial meetings began last week: Hillary Clinton, for instance, was
photographed having coffee at Starbucks in Suntec City,
one of two major APEC meeting sites, on November 11. The Chinese president had already arrived in Singapore, Russia’s
President Dmitri Medvedev is making his first visit to Singapore and the November 12 edition of The Straits Times (Singapore) was rife with speculation about where the various leaders would be, or were already,
staying. Given the wealth of luxury
hotels in the city, there are more than enough to go around. Obama, for instance, was rumored for the Shangrila. (Photo above right "Singapore Welcomes You" by PHKushlis 11-11-09)
China’s
Soft Power Diplomacy: Playing the Panda Card
But the news that dominated the front page of The Straits
Times the day I left was the present of a young panda pair to the Singapore Zoo
from the Chinese leadership to the Singaporeans. China’s president who had already
arrived, presumably bore the new bears message. The black and white furry “gifts,”
however, do not come without strings – including a healthy price tag for the Singaporeans
and the promise to repatriate any future panda off-spring to China.
What I had not known, however, about this cuddly form of
diplomacy is that the Chinese only offer pandas to countries with which they
have especially good relations.
According to the newspaper whose reporter did some homework, the Chinese
first used panda diplomacy in the Seventh Century and Singapore will
be only the seventh country to be offered a panda pair. Earlier recent recipients were the US, Australia,
Japan, Thailand, Austria
and Taiwan.
Clearly then, Chinese-Taiwanese relations are
on an up-swing. Not only did Taiwan
receive a panda pair, but it is now possible to fly directly from Shanghai
to Taiwan
– something that shaves off hours and relieves much needless aggravation. What is also interesting is the countries not
on the panda-receipt list. Think about
it. (Photo above left of young panda pair at Chengdu Panda Preserve by PHKushlis 2004)
From APEC to ASEAN
Barack Obama is scheduled to devote November 15 to APEC
meetings as well as one multilateral with ASEAN heads of state before departing
for Shanghai. He arrived for the conclusion of the dinner on November 14.
This is the first time an American President has ever met
with ASEAN counterparts – as incredible as that may seem given Asia’s economic
and security importance to the US. One supposedly controversial aspect of this particular
meeting is that the Burmese president will be in the group of 10 and US policy
towards the junta has been to shun engagement of any sort until Kurt Campbell,
Assistant Secretary for East Asian Affairs in the State Department, visited
Rangoon last week where he met with less august levels of the ruling clique as
well as Aung San Suu Kui still under house arrest.
The Obama administration has – following its predecessors lead –
continued to press for her release.
Whether they will succeed where others have failed is an open question.
Because of the
Ft.
Hood killings, Obama cut
his Asian trip a little short.
Because of the recent change in Japanese governments
and the new government’s decidedly less pro-American stance towards the
US and the US base on Okinawa, Obama spent nearly two days in
Tokyo meeting with the new prime minister Yukio Hatoyama and others.
The discussion with Hatoyama focused on security, not economic, issues. His
major speech on US-Asian relations was
also delivered there.
Whether or not the
latest fracas between North and
South
Korea was mentioned was not indicated - and no reporters asked the question in the press briefing thereafter. But certainly recognition of and concern for the plight of Japanese who have been abducted by the North Koreans was because several of the families of the abductees were in the audience for Obama's speech at Suntory Hall.
Obama More Popular than the US - Latest Pew Poll
The most recent Pew public opinion survey of Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans indicates that Obama
is more popular in Asia than is the US.
I don’t know whether this is true or not. Clearly, Obama is far more popular among many
people who live outside the US
than his predecessor. This is true from what
I heard during my travels - albeit totally unscientifically.
But the degree of differentiation
between reactions to the President and the US as a whole among Asians as also reflected in the Pew survey is
beyond my level of competency. The
troubles with the US
economy may be a major factor influencing the poll results. So too would be the way the US is portrayed in the various national media.
The George W. Bush administration had developed a good
relationship with the Chinese – but pretty much ignored everyone else so Obama
and the rest of his administration need to keep the Chinese relationship on
track while fence-mending with the others. There was no coincidence then that Hillary Clinton's first foreign trip abroad as Secretary of State was to Asia. Thus far, it seems, they’re off to a good start. And the Asians like it.