Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Asia's view on Obama coming back



With the re-election of Barrack Obama, there will be quite a shift in power on the foreign side of the United States. The position of Secretary of State will be up for grabs soon. Asian countries are having mixed feelings, but overall a sigh of relief with the return of this President.

 "Mr. Obama is the lesser of two evils," said Shi Yinhong, an expert on U.S.-China relations at Renmin University in Beijing. Obama wishes to have more negotiations with China about outsourcing, trade, and the environment. Yet, China loves the special connection that it holds with the United States and would fight for as much wiggle room that it can get. However, changes in the Secretary of State and foreign policy leaders would also mean that both sides, China and the US, would have to get to know each other from square one again. With this Chinese officials said that they have no time to play politic games.

Japan, however, prefers the headstrong negotiation style of Hilary Clinton, but if Clinton resigns, China and other Asian countries might face a softer hand from either of the possible Secretary of State candidates John Kerry and Susan Rice, which would not play well for the Japanese. 
South Korea is also giving a sigh of relief with the re-election of Obama. Fear rose in S.Korea with the possible chance that Romney would get elected and engage North Korea in combat. 

The only country with a frown on its face for the most part is India. India has been growing prosperously for quite sometime. Not with the rigor of China, but fairly well. However, now outsourcing IT jobs to India is up for questioning. With unemployment in the U.S. over 7.2%  this may result in a fight to get jobs that were outsourced to India back in the states, not just to drop the unemployment rate, but to encourage growth in the American IT field. Personally, the United States has to cut India off. India has benefited some what on globalization, but its own internal growth rate and development is quite slow. India has the ability to upgrade, but it doesn't. It's education sector is also not evolving  as it should as well. If the United States continues to enable this country, both countries will continue to show no growth.

There is speculation that Obama might appoint a republican for the Secretary of State position which would be interesting and smart in terms of gluing the United States back together.  Nevertheless, I believe that we need strong leadership much like Clinton's style. Yet, much like Clinton's style, this style needs to show a balance.The connections to Asian countries are absolutely vital to the United States and there is a delicate string that needs to be protected. So if the leadership is too rough it would hit the United States critically. 


Resources:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323894704578104141204920404.html
CNN



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