Community | November 13, 2009 | 2 comments

Obama: China Can Be Source of Shared Strength

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TOKYO — The United States is not threatened by a rising China, President Obama said Saturday, but will seek to strengthen its ties with Beijing even as it maintains close ties with traditional allies like Japan.

In a wide-ranging speech on his inaugural trip to Asia, Mr. Obama, as he often does, drew on his own personal background to reassure people on the fast-growing continent that even as the United States seems pre-occupied with conflicts in the Middle East and other regions, it is increasingly “a nation of the Pacific.”

“I know there are many who question how the United States perceives China’s emergence,” Mr. Obama told an audience in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. But, he added, “in an inter-connected world, power does not need to be a zero-sum game, and nations need not fear the success of another.”

As he has on many of his trips abroad, Mr. Obama struck a conciliatory note, painting a picture of an America that is willing to learn from its mistakes.

Mr. Obama’s speech came near the end of his inaugural trip to Japan, where he spent two days mending fences with America’s most important Asian ally. On Friday, Mr. Obama announced that he would establish a high-level working group on the contentious issue of the continuing presence of a Marine base in Okinawa.

The decision, announced at a news conference with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, appears to represent a concession by the Obama administration to at least consider Japan’s concerns about the base, which is deeply unpopular in Okinawa and which the newly elected Japanese government had promised to relocate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/world/asia/14prexy.html
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    Community,   Current Tonight,   US Politics,   World Politics,   4 more
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    China Diplomacy Japan
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