Obama's Asia trip fails to achieve goals, experts say

[webfact]

Obama's Asia trip fails to achieve goals, experts say
Li Xiaokun
China Daily

(ANN) As the dust settles on US President Barack Obama's Asian trip, it seems that Washington got less out of it than its hosts, but Beijing is now more aware of US intentions in the region, observers said.

During Obama's trip, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines have achieved their goal of a greater US security presence but have done little to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a key strategic goal of Obama's economic policy.

"Though Obama tried to avoid directly confronting China during the four-nation visit, he did challenge Beijing by making strident remarks in Japan and signing a military agreement with the Philippines, a move China found provocative," said Sun Zhe, director of the Centre of China-US Relations at Tsinghua University.

The International New York Times said in a front page story on Monday under the headline "Avoiding Beijing, but not ignoring it" that "on every stop of his Asian journey in the past week, President Obama has spoken to two audiences: America's allies and China".

Washington and Manila signed a decadelong agreement on Monday to allow a greater US military presence in the Philippines.

Obama warned on Tuesday against the use of force to resolve territorial disputes as he addressed US and Filipino forces in Manila.

"We believe that international law must be upheld, that freedom of navigation must be preserved and commerce must not be impeded. We believe that disputes must be resolved peacefully and not by intimidation or force," he said.

Beijing has said navigational freedom in the South China Sea has never been interrupted and that it believes negotiation is the best way to solve disputes.

Obama also assured Manila on Tuesday that a 1951 defence treaty between the two nations commits the US to defend the Philippines.

"And no potential aggressor can be under the illusion that either of them stands alone. In other words, our commitment to defend the Philippines is ironclad. The US will keep that commitment because allies will never stand alone," Obama said.

However, the US president did not give a clear-cut commitment to the Philippines that US military forces would come to its aid in the event of a conflict in the South China Sea.

This was in stark contrast to what Obama said in Japan where he said the defence treaty with Tokyo covers the Diaoyu Islands, part of China's sovereign territory.

Wu Shicun, president of the National Institute for the South China Sea, said US assurances to Japan and the Philippines were aimed at "conciliating" them and did not mean the US will rush to get involved in any military conflict with China.

"Obama's promises to allies are more symbolic rather than substantive," he said.

Shi Yinhong, director of the Centre for American Studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing, told Reuters that the Obama administration probably felt its message of deterrence to China and reassurance to Japan and other allies was delivered successfully.

"But if we want to know if the trip seriously harmed US-China relations and damaged US strategic and economic interests, well, that is a difficult question to answer," Shi said.

Hong Kong-based Takungpao newspaper said in a commentary on Tuesday that the security situation in the region had worsened.

"Did Obama's Asia trip strike the right balance? No, quite the opposite," the paper said.

"The US has tried to consolidate alliances with countries such as Japan and the Philippines, and this has deepened Beijing's concerns. Those countries may now feel they have nothing to fear and they could feel emboldened and this complicates the situation."

Sun from Tsinghua said Obama failed to realise his Trans-Pacific Partnership goal and made little economic headway on the trip. The partnership encompasses 12 Pacific countries but remains deeply divisive among the public and politicians who fear that US goods will flood their markets.

Washington may feel frustrated, Sun said, pointing out that Obama's trip resulted in nothing tangible on the economic front.

This was in sharp contrast to Beijing's massive economic cooperation with Southeast Asian nations announced in recent years, he added.

Obama's talks with South Korean President Park Geun-hye also saw little in the way of tangible benefits, either economically or militarily, according to an editorial in South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper which said "the US cannot exert leadership in Asia only with words".


-- ANN 2014-04-30

[TVGerry]

Another failure. It's pretty typical of his presidency.

[Mango Bob]

Look at the source. Anyone believing anything that comes out of China press is a fool.

[Asiantravel]

Look at the source. Anyone believing anything that comes out of China press is a fool.

I'm sorry I don't understand the point you are trying to make?

Asia News Network is headquartered at the offices of the Nation Multimedia Group in Bangkok

I mean you are hardly going to get anything written like this from any of the other Western media groups when they were travelling with him on air force one

[rickirs]

"it seems that Washington got less out of it than its hosts" :

"Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines have achieved their goal of a greater US security presence"

China is more aware of active US interests in the Asian region.

US diplomacy appears to be successful despite his absence last year at the ASEAN meeting where China had a chance to dominate diplomatically. Ok, no TPP, yet but Obama faces a patchwork of US economic policies in Asia since its defeat of Japan in 1945. With the US Congress itself undecided what a TPP should be, Obama can't get any agreement passed currently. A more deliberate diplomatic process can only benefit all parties and quite possibly world events in Asia could accelerate a TPP. Time is on the US side.

[ripper15]

I you believe in free trade and individual freedom, you have to be opposed to the TPP will all your heart and soul. This piece of crap benefits no one but transnational corporations and pushes governments and their laws into the toilet. The clause about allowing companies to sue a country for projected losses if a country refuses to issue a permit to allow a company to operate or build a facility within their borders is just the height of lunacy. The losses and penalties would be accessed by a group of lawyers in the pay of the transnationals and totally bypasses the countries own judicial system. How any sane person could support such a notion that a company should be financially compensated for a business that never even opened its doors just buggers the imagination. This is just one of the totally outrageous clauses in this piece of rubbish. Pardon my rant but this issue is a burr under my saddle.

[ggt]

This article's subjective conclusion...is to be expected from an article written by Li Xiaokun of the
China Daily...

[BadBouy]

I'm sure there is a baseball analogy that can explain this, "strike three!"

[LomSak27]

China Daily ..... well I guess that beats The Age and Press TV

--- Press TV (stylised PRESSTV) is a 24-hour English language news organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). The head of IRIB is appointed by the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,[3] and the organization is said to be close to the country's conservative political faction, especially the elite revolutionary guards.[3] PressTV headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran---

PressTV is where the ThaiVisa people picked up the article about Kerrys last warning to Russia.

Say what you will its refreshing to have a news site that has a conservative bias instead of that "liberal one". And a staff that scours the net to cherry pick the most damming articles they can find about the Obama administration, even if it is from Iran !! meh

Conservatives; rooting for America to fail since 2008

[hawker9000]

'Guess your community organizing skills are lost on all those foreign rubes, eh Barack?

It was always SOOOOO predictable. He's great with the Chicago machine tactics. Not so great without the threats & intimidation. 10mins with the man & foreign leaders realize immediately he's in way over his head. (Score 10 pts for "transparency" - lol). You can hear the snickering half a world away. Putin must have a repertoire full of Obama jokes by now.

[hawker9000]

China Daily ..... well I guess that beats The Age and Press TV

--- Press TV (stylised PRESSTV) is a 24-hour English language news organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). The head of IRIB is appointed by the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,[3] and the organization is said to be close to the country's conservative political faction, especially the elite revolutionary guards.[3] PressTV headquarters are located in Tehran, Iran---

PressTV is where the ThaiVisa people picked up the article about Kerrys last warning to Russia.

Say what you will its refreshing to have a news site that has a conservative bias instead of that "liberal one". And a staff that scours the net to cherry pick the most damming articles they can find about the Obama administration, even if it is from Iran !! meh

Conservatives; rooting for America to fail since 2008

Obama; blaming conservatives (AND congress, AND George Bush, AND youtube videos...) since 2008