Redstate

Posted at 10:19am on Apr. 10, 2008 Barack Obama Discloses His Strategy for Negotiating with the Chinese

And It’s Not a thing of beauty

By blackhedd

I’m simply mad as a wet hen over this, ladies and gentlemen. I know that Erick and Moe have already posted on this remark from Obama:

"It's very hard to tell your banker that he's wrong," Obama said, after talking about the need to restore America's stance in the world, "And if we are running huge deficits and big national debts and we're borrowing money constantly from China, that gives us less leverage. It give us less leverage to talk about human rights, it also is giving us less leverage to talk about the uneven trading relationship that we have with China."

I’m biting my tongue! None of the words that spring readily to mind by way of describing this attitude are printable here. Obama has literally told the Chinese in quite so many words that he will defer to their strength, when negotiating critical issues regarding global economic competition.

Depending on how overvalued you think the yuan is, and how credible you think their official statistics are, China’s economy is still anywhere from one-fourth to one-half the size of ours. That gives us power in the relationship. But they have the growth, the initiative, and a rational foreign policy, which gives them power.

In such a case, you negotiate straight ahead, you trade strength for strength, and you fight dirty when necessary. As the Lord is my witness, the Chinese have fought dirty, continue to fight dirty, and have absolutely no compunction about fighting dirty in the future.

What you don’t do is say that you don’t want to tell them they’re wrong, and then enumerate the reasons why you shouldn’t.

Obama gains power by his calm elegance, and his air of relaxed authority. He’s starting the game holding great cards. So why on earth would he fold ahead of time? This is a blunder that he will never be able to get back.

Posted in China Trade Policy | Foreign Affairs | Negotiating | Obama — Comments (71)/ Email this page » / Read More »