As far as the China thing (c'mon, you knew I was gonna):
1. As mainiac already pointed out, the yuan is more paritable against the dollar than it used to be. This process actually started before Obama took office, in the latter Bush years. The obstacles to allowing the yuan to rise had always been twofold, from China's perspective:
a. Abruptly unpegging the yuan from the dollar would have been a shock to both currencies. While China's purchasing power would have skyrocketed, so would the relative cost of its exports. And, it held over $1 trillion in dollar-denominated US securities and would have taken a bath on those. Beijing always argued that they weren't inherently opposed to letting the yuan stand on its own as a currency, just that they wanted to take the process slow. Slow is how the Chinese government likes to make changes, because fast changes historically tend to be really, really bad and disruptive and millions of people die. This is a recurrent theme you will find on a number of issues.
b. They're a bit like a four-year old. If you demand that they do something, they're going to refuse on principle because "you're not the boss of me". Once the United States quit harping on the "currency manipulation" charge, they were surprisingly compliant with a plan of stepped "unpegging" of the yuan.
2. It always irks me that China is a convenient target for BOTH parties to use as a boogeyman, and to tar opponents by any association. This is one of the reasons I liked Jon Huntsman, and probably one of the big reasons why he stood zero chance -- he was the only candidate not touting China as this looming Red Menace/Yellow Peril on the horizon, because we all know America works best when we have an implacable, evil foe to oppose (Native Americans/British/Mexicans/European imperialists/Spain/Nazis/Japanese/Soviets/al-Qaeda).
3. Intellectual property rights are a big deal, but they're also virtually impossible to fix through talks with high-level authorities. China is NOT some monolithic, totalitarian state entity. It's not as if Hu Jintao is sending orders down the chain saying, "I totes want to see The Avengers on Blu-ray RIGHT NOW. Go pirate that shit for me. Oh, and make a few hundred thousand copies to sell in the night markets while you're at it."
The vast majority of IP violations are occuring at the very lowest level. Somebody gets a hold of some piece of intellectual property, sees the financial value in selling it, and boom...piracy. Doesn't matter if it's illegal or not. Hell, it's a running joke that half of daily life in the PRC is technically illegal. So because enforcement is a domestic problem within China (whether there's even a political will *to* enforce IP laws is another matter), blustering and threatening Beijing over the issue is counterproductive.
That's a fundamental failure to grasp China that I see repeatedly in the Romney camp. As highlighted in this quote:
We were told that labeling China a currency manipulator would send a clear signal to China that the U.S. is serious about unfair trade practices and that the U.S. would be “more likely to make progress across a range of issues.”
WRONG. You don't come in, talk tough like John Wayne, badmouth them, and then expect them to bow down and acquiesce to your demands. If that's your idea of diplomatic negotiation, UR DOIN IT WRONG.
This is a country where a "business meeting" means going out for dinner and drinks for three hours, and all the useful discussion happens in small groups with a cup of baiju in your hand.
A country where you can get things done by knowing a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy whose brother can call in a favor from an old schoolmate who is cousin to a government official.
A country where "It will be difficult," is the local equivalent of saying "Oh HELL no!"
One does not merely walk into
Mordor China and make demands (in part, because it's very difficult for them to deliver on things like IP enforcement, and it's a loss of face to admit that they have little to no control over the black-market economy; and in part because of 1.b. above)
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Topic: American Election Megathread - It's Over (Read 770700 times)