Obama and McCain on China

There's not a whole lot of meat in this article, but it's a basic rundown of America's presidential candidates' attitudes towards China.

From Reuters:

BEIJING (Reuters) - Presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama both vowed to press China on trade and to work with it on climate change if elected, and Obama said he would make shifting Beijing's currency policies a priority.

Democratic candidate Obama and Republican candidate McCain laid out their views on Beijing's rising diplomatic and economic power in position papers published by the American Chamber of Commerce in China on Monday (http://www.amcham-china.org.cn).

Both senators want China to grant citizens wider rights, but stressed security, economic and environmental issues that make ties between Washington and Beijing globally important and often contentious.

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I find the US/China relations on a national/presidential level quite amusing. There is certainly a lot of rhetoric and hand-wringing between the two countries. It remains to be seen just how much each country really listens to the other though.

Although not terribly pressing in terms of China relations, I can only hope that there will be a new tone coming out of Washington come January (cough Obama cough cough).

I'm on pins and needles these days with McCain surging ahead in the polls. Friends of mine in Xi'an from other countries, mostly England, have been asking me how it is possible that America would even consider voting in another Republican after the Bush fiasco. I honestly don't have a good answer for them except that we, as a nation, are idiots destined for a fall.

Being a very concerned American, I can only hope that Obama wins this thing on November 4th. I've registered to vote (in Kansas, unfortunately) and hope that everything goes smoothly with my absentee ballot. I want to have no blood on my hands if we elect McCain/Palin.

If America is in fact foolish enough to vote in McCain, a guy tied to the hip to Karl Rove and President Bush and their failed policies, then we fully deserve the harsh realities that will surely result from that misguided decision.