This presentation examines Obama's approach to China during his first term in office, defined as the "charm offensive." It also explores the U.S. positions on Tibet and Taiwan.

1. Please visit a web site I have
developed that aggregates current
news and information about China--it
is chinagovernance.net

2. China & Obama
vs
Obama & China
你好
2005-06 President
American Society for Public Administration
Professor Emeritus
Northern Illinois University
Donald C. Menzel, Ph.D

5. Issues
(many)
• Economy & Trade
• Environment & Climate Change
• Energy
• Human Rights
– Tibet
• Foreign Policy
– North Korea
– Taiwan
– Iran
• Military & Nuclear Non-proliferation

6. Global problems cannot be
solved without U.S.-China
cooperation.
--energy policy, climate change, nuclear
proliferation, economic recovery, financial
reform, environmental degradation, human
rights

7. What is the Obama strategy for
gaining the cooperation of China?
• Confrontation?
• Competition?
• Containment?
• Engagement?
• Charm?
• Give & Get?

8. The Charm Offensive
Year 1

9. “China is a great power and has a
long and extraordinary history.”
G-20 Summit, London, April 2, 2009
President Hu Jintao

10. President Obama
“There is much to be gained from a closer
working relationship with China. But improved
relations with China will require candor, and
open discussion about issues where we don’t
agree, such as human rights, democracy and
free speech, and will require that each of our
nations play by the rules in open and honest
competition.”
– May 16, 2009

11. Who’s Who?
• President Hu Jintao, 2003-2012
Paramount Leader
“The socialist harmonious society we want to
build should be a society featuring democracy,
the rule of law, fairness, justice, sincerity,
trustworthiness, amity, full vitality, stability,
orderliness, and harmony between mankind and
nature.” 2005 speech
Hu Jintao was elected president of the
People's Republic of China on March 15,
2003. He is now general secretary of the
CPC Central Committee, president of the
People's Republic of China, chairman of
the Central Military Commission.
1942-

12. Strategic Dialogue
• Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
—February 2009
• Secretary of Treasury Timothy F. Geithner
—June 2009
• Secretary of Defense Robert Gates MIA
• Ambassador Jon Huntsman August 2009
• President Obama visits China Nov 2009

13. Secretary of State
“The opportunity for us to
work together are unmatched
anywhere in the world. We are
truly going to rise or fall
together. Our economies are
so intertwined.”
Hillary Rodham
Clinton, February 21,
2009, Beijing

14. Treasury Secretary
“Although the United States and
China start from very different
positions, many of our domestic
challenges are similar. . . Health
care . . . Quality education . . .
Infrastructure . . . Energy efficiency
. . . Climate change . . . Reforming
financial systems.”
“Global problems will not be solved without U.S.-China
cooperation. That goes for the entire range of issues that
face our world from economic recovery and financial repair
to climate change and energy policy.”
Timothy Geithner, June 1,
2009, Peking University

15. U.S. Ambassador to China
Jon Huntsman, Jr., 2006,
Shanghai Normal
University
“Whether you recognize it or not, our two
countries are poised like never before to
shape a better tomorrow. . .
we must strengthen our efforts to
understand the cultural divide that
sometimes stands between us. . .
Intends to resign April 30, 2011, to explore
a run for the presidency in 2012.

16. Obama Visits China
November 2009
• "We meet here at a time when the
relationship between the United States
and China has never been more important
to our collective future.” – President
Obama

17. What is China’s strategy for dealing
with the U.S.?
• Confrontation?
• Competition?
• Charm?
• Engagement?
• Economic warfare?
• Puzzling?

18. China’s International Behavior
• Passive-aggressive?
• Rogue economic superpower?
• Assertive and erratic?
• Responsible?

19. Obama & China
Year 2

20. “Give and Get?”
Dateline 2/5/11 Washington:
China’s Currency Avoids Manipulated Ruling Again

21. Tensions
• Relations plunge into a freeze over
– Trade tariffs
– Subsidizing the production of wind power
equipment
• Local content issue
– Human relations
• The Nobel Piece Prize award to Liu Xiaobo
• “Washington must cease using human rights as an
excuse to meddle in China’s internal affairs.”

22. Issues
• Economy & Trade
• Transnational
– Tibet
– Taiwan
– North Korea
– Iran
• Military

23. Economy & Trade
• Interdependency
• U.S.– reduced consumption, more savings
• China – increased domestic spending,
less savings
• Steady and safe Chinese investment in
the U.S.
The world financial system is out of balance: China has
over-saved, America has over-consumed; each country has
relied on the other for its own economic security.

24. Trade—the U.S.
imports more than
$4 worth of goods
from China for
every $1 of goods
that it exports to
China.

26. Comparing Economies
• China -- $5.7 trillion GDP
• U.S. -- $14.6 trillion GDP
• The Chinese economy will certainly
become the largest and most dominant
economy in the world! – says who?
• Why Hu got the red carpet treatment?

27. Transnational Issues
• Tibet—internal meddling?
• Taiwan—Cold War relic?
• North Korea—nuclear blackmail?

28. Tibet

29. President Obama meets with Dali Lama, February 18, 2010

30. China Reacts
Jon Huntsman, Jr.,
U.S. Ambassador to
China
"The US act grossly interfered in
China's internal affairs, gravely
hurt the Chinese people's national
sentiments and seriously damaged
the Sino-US ties," said Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu in a further
statement Friday.

31. Obama & the Dali Lama
February 2010
Raising issues that quickly stoked China's ire, Obama used
his first presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama to press
Beijing, under international criticism for its Tibet policies, to
preserve Tibetan identity and respect human rights there.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said the
meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama "violated the
U.S. government's repeated acceptance that Tibet is a part of
China and it does not support Tibetan independence."

32. Why does the United
States care about Taiwan?
Isn’t it one of the most
dangerous flash points
in the world?

33. Background
• 23 million
• 111 miles from China mainland
• 1895 Japan colonizes the island
• 1931-45 Japan occupies large areas in
China
• 1945-49 China Civil War
• 1949 Chiang Kai-shek and Kuomintang
flea to Taiwan

34. Taiwan Relations Act
April 1979
• A watershed for U.S. relations with Taiwan
• Calls for peaceful means to determine the
future of Taiwan
• The U.S. will provide necessary defense
services to ensure that Taiwan can
maintain “a sufficient self-defense
capability.”

35. Why?
• Long standing commitment to the people
on Taiwan is critical for continued
credibility of U.S.
• Growth of democracy—from a one party
authoritarian state to a multiparty
democracy over the past 20 years
• Trade—Taiwan is the U.S. ninth largest
trading partner

36. North Korea
Kim Jong-il in 2000
The Supreme Leader

37. Nukes and N. Korea

38. China’s Priorities
• “For the Chinese, stability and the
avoidance of war are the top priorities.” –
Daniel Sneider of Stanford’s Asia-Pacific Research Center
• Because of the specter of hundreds of
thousand of North Korean refugees
flooding into China, stability is a huge
worry for Beijing.

39. Escalation
• N Korea sinks S Korean ship (March
2010)
• N Korea shells S Korean island (Nov
2010)
• Obama urges China to check North
Koreans
• US-S Korea stage military exercises
• China moves to curb N Korea’s belligerent
behavior

40. Military-to-Military
• Mutually suspicious relations
• Badly frayed relations between the two
nations’ militaries
• US provides arms to Taiwan
• Transparency lacking
• Modernization

42. A New Start?
• Hu visits the U.S. – Jan. 2011
• “We have a great deal invested in each
other’s success.”—Timothy Geithner Jan. 2011

43. Hu-Obama Summit
• Obama gets “a new reputation for
toughness in his China policy?”
• Hu gets a state visit that portrays China as
an equal partner with the U.S.
• Both reap domestic political benefits.

44. Obama & China
2011
• Is Obama projecting “pragmatic
steeliness?”
• Is he sending unambiguous signals that
the West will not be intimidated by
Chinese swagger?
• Standing up to China?
• Is a a new cold war in Asia, with Japan,
the US and S Korea on one side and
China and the North on the other side,
about to start? Mark Landler NYT 12/6/10

45. Concluding Remarks
• The challenge to this generation of
leaders is to create a new system of
international relations that produces
cooperation on the great issues that affect
everyone.
• China and the U.S. will help define the
world’s future.

46. References
• David Leonhardt, “The China Puzzle,” The New
York Times Magazine, May 17, 2009.
• Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-
China_policy
• Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama
• Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Huntsman,_Jr.
• Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World
• New York Times, June 24, 2009.

47. Want to know more about the
“new” China?
You can find my new multi-
touch book “The NEW China”
in the iBookstore or the text
version at Smashwords.com
Click on the images below.