From Reuters:
It'll be crazy when Obama comes over here. I can imagine that China, on the whole, will be pretty fired up. I don't hear about Obama that much anymore over here, but I think he's still a fairly popular guy.
Image from France24.com
BEIJING, Aug 22 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will visit China in mid-November, the new United States ambassador to Beijing said on Saturday, setting a date for a big summit likely to tackle the global economy, North Korea and climate change.
Washington's new envoy to Beijing, Jon Huntsman Jr., told reporters Obama "is going to be visiting in the middle of November", but he did not give specific dates.
Until now, neither Beijing nor Washington has publicly given such a firm time for the big visit.
It means the U.S. President is likely to go to Beijing and perhaps other regional capitals after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit in Singapore on 14-15 November.
Huntsman, speaking at his residence after arriving in the Chinese capital, said relations between the two economic and political powers were improving.
"By the end of the year, we should be in better shape than ever before between the United States and China," he said, in a speech that switched between English and fluent Mandarin Chinese.
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I know that Obama's numbers are down now in America. From what I can tell, a lot of people are very underwhelmed with how he's doing. I'm having a bit of trouble gauging his performance and America's reaction to him from China. I'm looking forward to immersing myself into more American news and politics when I get back to the States soon.
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10 comments:
This site doesn't get tons of comments or commenters. But because of a certain troll, I'm going to regulate comments for a while.
Pugster and his illogical and hateful comments will never be allowed on this site again.
So if you feel like leaving a comment and aren't a fen qing looking to start ridiculous fights, your comments will be approved and will show up eventually.
Oh wow, that word perfectly defined that guy. Didn't know it existed, I will have to write that one down.
Yeah I think he was the one posting as anon in that war over "stand by Me"'s popularity. Talked the same way and got pretty well tore up. Was just about to rip him a new one when that thread closed, but banning him is probably for the best. I tried to extend an olive branch and here his side and explaine my position, but he just wanted to be mad for the sake of being mad.
Which perfectly transitions to whats going on over here. The right wing has really gone to the extreme over here. They really saw how badly they were getting beaten and in a desperate measure, they have gone to the extremes. A tactic which I thought would doom them is actually working. A lot of people are upset about their situation and want to vent their anger and the republican pundits and commentators are working them into a frenzy with propaganda. They are being told that Obama is forming "death panels" with his new health care program in which the goverment will euthanize people and being instructed to go to town halls and raise havoc. Its a mess over here right now. The sad part is these people aren't savvy enough to figure out that they are pawns in a game being played by big pharmaceutical companies and the rich. I personally think the president is doing a great job under the circumstances. I used to consider myself a moderate/independent but after seeing all the stuff the right is up to, I want to be as far from them as possible and have gone firmly to the left.
Yeah, that Chinese phrase sums Pugster and his ilk up perfectly.
When I was in Beijing this summer, I met Richard from The Peking Duck for a cup of coffee. We had a good chuckle about guys like Pugster (and Pugster in particular actually).
These guys who troll TPD (and Pugster here) all defend China at all costs and bash the West non-stop. All the while, they live outside of China in the West!
Pugster sits there and defends China on human rights issues or pollution problems or just about anything else from the comfort of his home in the US.
Must be pretty convenient for him living in the "land of the free."
You're probably right on that movie post too. In addition to the language being largely the same, the terrible argumentative skills and inability to answer a question were also going on in those posts.
As far as the Rethugs are concerned...
I'm vaguely aware of the death panels and stuff like that. I thought, with the election of Obama, that America had moved past Rovian-style scare tactics. But it obviously hasn't. That's supremely disappointing and something I'm not looking forward to in America.
It's amazing how many people are being duped without having any idea that such is the case.
Hey, just a note to say I enjoy your blog (found it via Google searching on "Uighur goatherd", of all things...
Good luck with married life. I recommend staying where you are while things over here stabilize!
Even from our vantage point in China, it's easy to see that the Obama honeymoon has been over for a while, but I knew it would happen. People were lining up to kiss his feet like he was a deity but of course he's a politician and rule numero uno is that most of politician's promises don't come true, either by their own devices or sabotage by rival parties/individuals. So what is a disappointed public to do? Get mad at him for giving the American people blue balls, whether it's his fault or not. In this age of severe disillusionment and jaded perspectives, you'd think people would have learned by now: Don't believe the hype. Nothing is EVER as good as people make it out to be, especially if they're the ones pushing the product. This isn't the 1950s age of gee whiz can-do American gumption. Maybe it will be again but for now, every day brings us closer to apocalyptic annihilation, not away from it. And Obama's complicity in America's delirious fantasies about him and his supposedly superhuman abilities only made things worse.
@Stephen - I'm glad you found my blog. That's interesting how you found it! Thanks for the kind words.
I hear what you're saying on staying in China. But the visa's been approved and we have plane tix. There's no backing out now! Only a few days to go now!
We realize that America is, as the Chinese say - 乱七八糟 - but we're going to give it a whirl.
I'm not convinced things will be "stabilized" any time soon either. Unemployment and the economy are going to stink for a while. And I don't want to wait for those things to improve before I introduce Qian to where I grew up.
I think we're ready for the big move!
@马克 - I definitely drank the Obama Kool-Aid last fall. I still think he's infinitely better than McCain and Palin. I don't buy that there's no difference between parties or that the country would be doing the same regardless.
I'm pretty sure McCain would've been as bad as Bush, if not worse.
But I'm with you on the honeymoon being over. I still think Obama's a pretty righteous dude though and am probably more in agreement with Hopfrog on Obama making the best of an, otherwise, terrible situation. There is no doubt that his mystique has faded.
The nerd inside of me is looking forward to watching US politics more closely once we're in the States.
Yeah I feel you, he was definitely the best choice. And I think he's a pretty stand-up dude, but the fact that he's the president of the USA means he's playing the game by the rules, and that makes him a politician above all else. I like many of his ideas though, but it would be naive for America to assume that if everyone got out of his way, he would make every boo-boo disappear.
When I was in the States in February, the lovefest was still in full swing, but the media was certainly hiding nothing as far as revealing the daunting tasks ahead of him. And now that people realize that hey, he's human after all and he's stuck in the Washington quagmire, they might turn on him faster than they turned on Bush. W. gave us unwinnable and unethical wars, but damn if everyone's SUVs were stuffed with cheap gasoline and new houses sprouted up like weeds, at least until Katrina. I saw a woman bawling at a town meeting news clip, wailing about how she "wanted [her] America back...!" I think she meant wanting her plush suburban American dream back, instead of imminent threats of layoffs and soaring oil and food prices. But things is the way they is, and Obama's stuck with latrine duty.
Struck by Hopfrog's comments on how the Right has moved in the US. They moved so much extreme that there is no place anymore for civilised debates. Which is a real pity - for issues like health care are not easy to handle and some maturity in the debate will yield the best possible outcome. But with such vitriol being thrown in, there seems to be no place for a mature debate and a pragmatic decision. "Bi partisanship be damned" seems to be the mantra on both sides, but stingingly so from the right. Given a chance, I think Obama can be a great president, but the extremists on both sides won't give that chance. Is there a place for a third party in the US - for the mature, sane, average Joe sans all extremism ??
"Bi partisanship be damned", I think you nailed it Ramesh. There has always been a divide betweem the right and left, but never in my lifetime have I seen it so polarized. I think the previous 8 years had been such an abomination that a lot of us were really expecting to see people on both sides try and reach middle ground and get the country 'fixed'.
Sadly, like a caged animal with no escape, the far right is in a panic and not thinking clearly, striking out at any hand that has been extended. Obama's team really put forth an effort to work together and even set up these town halls so that people could have healthy debate. Well we see what has happened. Even in my personal life I have never seen so much anger from right wingers.... and at this point.. I think both sides are saying "Bi partisanship be damned".
America has a ton of challenges ahead and with the country so divided, its going to be a tough place to be. I try and be optimistic, but there is something in the pit of my stomach telling me that we might be witnessing the biggest collapse since the fall of Rome.
We seem to have forgotten one of our basic tenets.. "United we stand, divided we fall."
it's the same old stuff from the Right -- rewind to the '90s, Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" (which was promptly ignored by the Republicans once it got them elected), and the demonization of Bill Clinton. These scare tactics are to be expected... which is what saddens me: Obama, while nobly reaching out in a gesture of non-partisan healing, is letting his agenda, the reason he was elected, slip through the cracks.
While it would certainly be nice to have a true spirit of cooperation to achieve a common good, the Right's seeming death-grip on their "culture war" fantasy gives them only one option: to try and regain power through their well-worn, tried-and-true tactic... the Politics of Fear.
What further saddens me is the way so many Americans swallow it whole. I truly believe it's a form of addiction. Once they've bought into it, their would spins around their cultural paranoia and they just can't let go.
I'd really like to see Obama step up to the plate and knock this one -- Health Care Reform -- out of the park. So far his efforts have seemed like too little too late. The pitcher's throwing strikes while Obama stands dazed in the batter's box. America needs him to make the case, in no uncertain terms, why reform is needed and why we'll all be better off.
Unfortunately so far, the Right has owned the debate.
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