Let it be known throughout the land that we now have a ‘President of the Pacific.’ He is a president who believes ‘the Pacific rim has helped shape my view of the world.’

Air Force One touched down in Beijing this week for the Obama administration’s first visit to China. In the wake of a global financial crisis that seemingly brought the United States economy to its knees, the president feels the need to cozy up to the Beijing government for a country that’s strapped for cash.

The New York Times uses the analogy of a ‘profligate spender coming to pay his respects to his banker.’ That’s a pretty accurate assessment.

With the Chinese bankrolling a great deal of the economic recovery of the United States, it is the administration’s role to reassure Chinese stockholders that their money is being spent on a worthy investment. The president’s visit is less about diplomacy and more about being a good CEO to China’s largest corporation: buying U.S. debt.

The fundamental problem with this approach is that it makes the United States seem broke in East Asia. It makes America look like it is lying on its deathbed trying to ensure that enough money is coming in to pay for its medical bills.

This is not the United States of 2009. Josef Joffe, an academic fellow affiliated with both Stanford and Harvard, recently published an article in Foreign Affairs magazine that puts things in perspective. The article states ‘current figures show the U.S. economy to be worth $14.3 trillion, three times as much as the world’s second-biggest economy, Japan’s, and only slightly less than the economies of the four nearest competitors combined, Japan, China, Germany and France.’

The question is why has our president decided to walk back on major issues in order to appease the Chinese.

Obama refused to meet with the Dalai Lama this October in fears that it would stir up controversy before his visit to Beijing. Also, the administration’s most ardent critic of Chinese currency policy, treasury secretary Tim Geithner, has walked his previous claims that China was a ‘currency manipulator.’

The White House needs to realize that in terms of economics, ‘A country [like China] neither becomes rich nor powerful by adding up 1.3 billion very poor people,’ states the Foreign Affairs article.

China is not a superpower yet.

To appease China is unwise, because although they may share common goals with the United States, they do not share our values. China has a long history of human rights abuses as well as abuses of political freedom. I actually agree with Secretary of State Clinton ? ‘We have to get back control over time of our fiscal sovereignty.’ In her words, ‘the task is to look where we can find the common ground and common interest.’

What this entails is not groveling to Beijing to make sure their investments are sound, but becoming more amicable with China when it does the right thing. We need to make sure that Beijing keeps up with its goal of creating a freer society across the Pacific that is more open and transparent.

While Obama is right in assessing that ‘what happens here has a direct effect on our lives at home,’ what also needs to be taken into account is that the United States still has a great deal of economic and political clout, much more than any of its competitors in the near future.

The administration and the American public need to realize that the relationship with China is not all gloom and doom. We still wear the pants in this relationship and will continue to fulfill that role for years to come. The United States should not be complacent but realize that sticking to its values, to what got us to the top in the first place, is important in dealing with any foreign country, especially China.

Andrew Swab is a sophomore magazine and international relations major. His columns appear weekly. He can be reached at ajswab@syr.edu.

Published on November 14, 2009 at 12:00 pm