why Obama administration would not wind China up so easily

by Chime Tenzing

When the American led war in Iraq first broke out, the Bush Administration said it was aimed at dismantling the non-existent WMD (Weapons of mass destruction) and later the world media churned out headlines after headlines reporting that the war was an outcome of America’s quest and greed for Iraq’s rich oil reserves and the old Bush-Saddam enmity that dates back to Senior Bush’s era .And, to authenticate and justify this war the American’s propaganda machinery kept the world obfuscated by their ambivalent pretexts and claims unto this day!

Other reasons for the invasion included Iraq's financial support for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, Iraqi government human rights abuses and an effort to spread democracy to the country. The invasion of Iraq led to an occupation and the eventual capture of President Hussein, who was later executed by the new Iraqi government.

According to some sources, Bush decided to invade Iraq in April 2001, six months before September 11th, and the official reason was to improve Western access to Iraqi oil - "President Bush's Cabinet agreed in April 2001 that Iraq remains a destabilizing influence to the flow of oil to international markets from the Middle East and because this is an unacceptable risk to the US 'military intervention' is necessary."

Around the same time, within the Tibetan exile world some of us (me and my friends) would discuss on why Bush wouldn’t wage a similar war against China. Some would say “Only if Tibet had rich oil reserves like Iraq then only Bush would wage a similar war against China”, implying that unless there’s a national interest involved no country would willingly risk antagonizing China to make peace with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans.

Now that the Iraq’s tragic climax is gradually cooling off under the new administration, the world is still subconsciously haunted by American imperialism and their veiled-dadagiri*, which they allegedly spread in the name of war against terrorism and propagating democracy in the dictatorial world.

This leaves me believing why Obama would not infuriate China so easily, especially in the wake of the unprecedented America’s recession and economic melt-down. The recent Obama’s China visit put him on show as nothing more than ‘a chip off the same old block’. Apart from a shift of focus from Iraq to Afghanistan, there’s nothing practically new in Obama’s foreign policies. He is yet to pull his socks up and come out in the guise of ‘the knight in the shining armor’ for the world in general and for the Tibetans in particular. Hence, there’s no surprise if we do not get to see him breathing out fire against the Communist China in the near foreseeable future.

In this context let me delve on one obvious reason why Obama would not do anything that would appear ‘inappropriate’ to his Communist counterparts in Beijing. Or, to put it bluntly, Obama would not do anything for Tibet as long as China’s trading partnership remains indispensable to their recession-struck economy. Despite the prevailing global recession, China’s economy stood firm making the world all the more dependent on their trade partnership. Therefore, for the moment China is the numero uno on the global economy stage. So America of Barack Obama must also stoop for a while.

Apart from burning domestic and foreign policy issues, it is pity that Obama Presidency was greeted with the greatest challenge of global recession that the world has experienced since The Great Depression in the 30’s.This makes his political maneuvers with China all the more complicated vis-à-vis Tibet. This puts America in an awkward situation in all its dealings with China.

According to a presentation made by Albert Keidel, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - “since its market reforms began in 1978, China’s economy has grown at close to 10 percent a year and has even accelerated since year 2000. Internationally accepted measures of China’s growth show it to be even faster than officially reported. This growth success is no flash in the pan. It will likely continue at better than decade-doubling rates until close to the middle of the century. The implications of China’s continued rapid growth include China’s overtaking the U.S. in overall GDP terms sometime around 2040”.

The point to drive home is, as long as China’s economy keep growing Obama would not willingly bite China’s butt to make them bury their bloody hatchet with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans. The inevitability of rising Chinese economy is the 'chink in President Obama’s armor'.

*origin:Hindi - act of bossing around

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