Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Obama in Beijing

There's always been a lot of discussion about the rise of China. Usually this centers on the country's seemingly unstoppable economic growth. Other times you can see it with some event like the Beijing Olympic Games. Or like last month's state-televised parade, in which the Chinese government showed off its nuclear weaponry. Yay!

China is indeed on the rise. But I have to say I really felt it this time with President Obama's visit.

China would never allow Obama to make one of his soaring idealistic speeches. (The government refused to broadcast his town hall meeting with Chinese college students while he was in Shanghai.) And Obama is careful not to do something that would threaten his repertoire with China. (He postponed his meeting with the Dalai Lama.)

But Obama came to China, holding a pretty lousy hand. Unemployment in America is in double digits, and the country is still struggling to start an economic recovery. Meanwhile China continues to chug along just fine, all the while still buying up American debt. If health care reform finally passes in the States, guess who will be the one to help finance it.

Naturally, Obama had little to nudge China with. Really, it was the other way around.

The New York Times used as their headline for Obama's recent visit: "China Holds Firm on Major Issues in Obama's Visit." The article said:

BEIJING — In six hours of meetings, at two dinners and during a stilted 30-minute news conference in which President Hu Jintao did not allow questions, President Obama was confronted, on his first visit, with a fast-rising China more willing to say no to the United States.

The Wall Street Journal was less generous and instead headlined with:  "Obama Hits a Wall on His Visit to China."

BEIJING -- Barack Obama's first trip here signaled a turning point in relations between a weakened U.S. power and a China that senses its time has come, as the president was hectored about economic policy, largely ignored on human rights and restricted in his efforts to reach out to ordinary Chinese.

Some might say this is more of the two country's treating each other as equal partners. This was bound to happen. But while China rises,  I can't help but feel America is maybe on the decline.

I myself am a part of this; I came to China looking for opportunities, and was lucky enough to avoid America's economic crisis. Now when people ask me if I want to return to America, I usually end up saying: "Uh, I don't think I could find job if I did go back."

China still has it's problems, and who knows what the future will bring. But for now, it is the land of opportunity, at least in my case. (An irony since it was my parents who left Taiwan for opportunities in America.)