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Obama’s no-show due to shutdown gives boost to China
washington » President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap his Asia trip is a setback for his much-advertised pledge to shift the focus of foreign policy to the Pacific and a boost for China’s attempt to gain influence in the region.
By staying home because of the partial government shutdown, Obama hands new Chinese leader Xi Jinping a chance to fill the void at two Asian summits Obama had planned to attend. It’s the third time since 2010 that Obama has canceled an Asia trip, all because of domestic political crises.
The budget crisis in Washington has reached the point where the White House felt compelled to skip Asia, giving Obama room to work with Congress on reopening the government. Had Obama left to attend the meetings, itwould have given weight to critics who have said he is more willing to negotiate with foreign leaders than the speaker of the House.
Secretary of State John Kerry will represent him at the summits in Indonesia and Brunei.
Budget strains had already put a damper on the Pentagon’s push to assert itself in the Pacific, and administration officials had cast the shift in policy more in terms of expanding diplomatic efforts, creating more trade and economic ties and just showing up in Asia more often. Now the showing up part has taken a hit. The situation works for China, which is modernizing its armed forces and boosting its regional influence. Xi has been visiting Indonesia and Malaysia this week to improve China’s reputation at a time when its aggressive stance on territorial issues has strained ties with some southeast Asian countries.
Washington’s acute political paralysis gives Xi a freer hand to become the big presence in the room.
“It shows that China has a functional government and America doesn’t at the moment,” said Kerry Brown, a China expert at the University of Sydney in Australia. “It’s just another sign that America is kind of losing its luster, losing its status.”
In announcing Obama’s decision Thursday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the government shutdown is “setting back our ability to create jobs through promotion ofU.S. exports and advance U.S. leadership and interests in the largest emerging region in the world.”
Even so, he said, Obama is committed “to the rebalancing of our policy” toward the Asia-Pacific and looks forward to going at another time. Obama has made five trips to Asia as president.
Experts in Asia said Obama’s no-show weakens U.S. leadership globally.
“If they can furlough jobs, cease government services and risk a downgrade in the country’s credit rating, American politicians may start finding it tough to be consistent in their political reassurances about U.S. commitment toward faraway Asia,” wrote Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
Retired U.S. Adm. Dennis Blair, a former head of U.S. Pacific Command, played down the impact of Obama’s cancellation and said the visit could wait until Obama can give the region his full attention.
“The United States has been here in this region in a major economic, diplomatic, military and influential way ever since 1944, and that situation has not changed,” he said.