Why would Mr. Obama side with China?
The Feb. 21 Washington Post editorial, “Why would Mr. Obama side with China?” suggested that the Kremlin ended Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov’s internal exile after the Senate renamed the Soviet Embassy site Andrei Sakharov Plaza. In fact, new Soviet leadership, led by Mikhail Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, ended Sakharov’s house arrest in Gorki as part of an overall reform campaign that included increased emigration for Soviet Jews and other minorities as well as a fundamental change in the Soviet attitude toward human rights.
If and when China finally obtains a reform leadership, then perhaps it will also view the world “through the eyes of humanity,” as Shevardnadze said in 1986. A feckless congressional effort to rename the location of the Chinese Embassy will not be a factor in any Chinese decision.
– Melvin A. Goodman, Bethesda
Read the entire article on the Washington Post editorial page.
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nstead of exploring policies that enable the United States to find ways to get along with China, too many politicians and pundits, like Boot, believe the only answer is in the pursuit of confrontation. The idea that India can be our ally against China seems far-fetched, given China’s many strengths, particularly in its economic and military advantages vis-a-vis India.
The Global Importance of Sino-American Relations
Currently, China has been taking advantage of the U.S. preoccupation with supporting Ukraine to steal a march on Washington’s interests, particularly in the Middle East. Unlike the United States, China has avoided contentious disputes throughout the Third World in order to establish reliable state-to-state relations in the Global South. While the Middle East has become America’s briar pitch, China has concluded long-term energy deals with Iran and Saudi Arabia, and recently orchestrated a rapprochement between the region’s leading countries. The United States could not play the honest broker role because it has no diplomatic relations with Iran and unreliable relations with Saudi Arabia.
