Obama’s Visit to China: Week of Nov. 16-22, 2009
This week, politics were afire with the usual health care squabbling, but the more interesting aspect of political commentary was concerning President Barack Obama’s East Asia tour this week. Specifically, his visit to China sparked debate and very different methods of reporting and commentary among political bloggers and newswriters alike.
The New York Times: “During Visit, Obama Skirts Chinese Political Sensitivities”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/world/asia/18china.html?th&emc=th
Michael Wines’ article this week was definitely informative and did a good job of summarizing the visit, but made sure to stress the idea that the visit was not very productive.
There was an evident disapproving tone in the description of the lack of controversy:
“American officials did consider organizing meetings between Mr. Obama and Chinese lawyers, university students in Beijing and Hu Shuli, a well-known Chinese journalist who recently ceded control of Caijing, one of the nation’s most respected and independent magazines. But officials say time constraints, not political considerations, sidelined those options, although the sightseeing agenda remained intact.”
The Times hinted at political posturing as an important factor in Obama’s avoidance of controversy, but overall stressed other presidential visits as much more productive, or at least honest of U.S. political sentiment.
The Washington Post: “Obama’s story infused Asia tour”
Anne E. Kornblut’s article stressed the idea that Obama used his personal stories to try to connect with East Asian diplomats on a human level. Like the NYT article, WAPO was also critical of Obama’s visit, but the angle focused more on Obama striving to make a more basic human connection with other countries instead of focusing solely on U.S. policies. This was more reflective of the idea that the Obama administration is trying to paint a new picture for U.S.-International Relations.
Politico: “President Obama’s trip: Style over substance”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29729_Page2.html
Mike Allen’s post reflected the disdain of the Right towards Obama’s visit, focusing on Obama’s unwillingness to make statements that would anger Chinese nationals. All three of these pieces so far have talked about how the televised “Town-Hall” -style meeting with the Chinese youth was heavily screened by the government, but Politico went so far as to criticize Obama’s speech, saying:
“Obama might have given a plain-spoken answer to the Twitter question, along the lines of: “I think the Chinese government is hurting itself.”’
To be fair, it is highly unlikely, AND UNWISE of the president to even think of saying something so rash. But of course, Politico thinks this is a perfectly logical answer. Hyperbole at its finest.
Even talking about freedom of information was an interesting and novel prospect for Obama and young Chinese students. Politico, however, was very upset. Especially about his bowing to the Japanese emperor, something that the Right has fought for a long time, as Talkingpointsmemo observed in their slideshow of the E. Asian tour.
Talkingpointsmemo.com: “In China Obama Touts Freedom Through Twitter, Basketball’s Yao Ming And Being The First Black President”
Talkingpointsmemo, as the liberal voice of blogging in this project, was obviously pretty lenient towards Obama’s visit. The main focus was the Town Hall meeting (seeing as that was the title of the article) but there were not many other posts on the site anyway. Let’s blame the health care debate. So, Christina Bellantoni’s article focused mainly on how Obama answered the questions about freedom of information, and how the Administration is trying to get clips out through social networking and other websites so more Chinese can see the meeting, despite the Chinese government’s attempts to block the meeting to most Chinese citizens.
Overall, very interesting political reporting this week. Careful observation of these four sources showed that while the news outlets remained fairly objective, although the Washington Post’s article was pretty feature-y, Politico and Talkingpointsmemo gave a full-fledged polarizing account of the events—wholeheartedly supporting or wholeheartedly against. Overall, The New York Times probably wins this week for best blog post.
