Politics
Truly Odd Anti-Obama Ad by John McCain
Does anyone understand the point they are trying to make? The only use of photoshop-ing I see here is the somewhat unskillful work by John McCain’s advertising team.
Arthur Kroeber: China Needs Proof of Democracy
China is ready for democracy, Arthur Kroeber argues. Instead of moving towards democracy at the behest of the rising middle class, however, the nation’s elite and middle class are fighting against such change.
“They are motivated partly by an understandable fear of instability but more by the self-interest of the elites who now hold power,” Kroeber writes in today’s Financial Times. Reading this reminds me of the enjoyable discussions with Arthur when we briefly shared an office in Hong Kong.
Some highlights:
Democracy is not making progress in China
There is also little evidence that the growing dynamism of China’s economy is creating space for the emergence of democratic institutions. Even as it reformed the economy, the Chinese Communist party skilfully strengthened its control over important economic actors – including virtually all of the nation’s big companies. It also ensured that responses to the country’s major social ills flow mainly through government channels.
China’s leadership has learned from the Soviet Union.
As China scholar David Shambaugh details in a new book, China’s Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation, the party carefully studied the collapse of the Soviet Union and concluded that to avoid the same fate it needed to run a dynamic economy, restrain corruption and ensure that government stayed responsive to changing social needs. The successful execution of this strategy has resulted in what another sinologist Andrew Nathan has aptly dubbed “Resilient Authoritarianism”: an autocratic system responsive enough to societal demands to keep itself in power for a long time.
China’s middle class sees no advantage in rocking the boat
They know that if democracy were introduced tomorrow they would be outvoted and they have little interest in changing the system.
Kroeber’s conclusion:
The task for democracy advocates is therefore not to lecture the Chinese on the inherent superiority of democracy, but to prove it by marshalling the evidence that it promotes stability and better satisfies social needs.
Bad China Advice for Obama and McCain
Systemic corruption of the US foreign policy elite colors advice given to Obama and McCain about China, Ken Silverstein warns in this month’s Harper’s (subscription only).
Today most of America’s so-called experts on China, including advisors to both Obama and McCain, have a definite if unacknowledged stake in keeping close ties with Beijing. Constructive engagement isn’t working well for the United States or the Chinese people, but it is working quite well for the very individuals from whom we might hope to see a new approach emerge: namely, America’s foreign policy elite, our own Mandarins.
These so-called Mandarins consult for major corporations in private, but maintain more impartial sounding titles for public appearances. They often appear in the media or speaking engagements under an academic title or referenced as “former US official”, Silverstein writes.
Stonebridge, for example, supplies a number of Obama’s China advisors, including Jeff Bader:
Stonebridge might best be seen as a sort of one-stop shop for international fixers - a collection of former government officials who replicate, in miniaturized form, the official foreign-policy apparatus … Stonebridge serves as a holding pen in which to draw a prodigious salary while awaiting a return to the State Department.
On the Republican side there is The Scowcroft Group of Brent Scowcroft and Alexander Haig’s Worldwide Associates, Inc.
Scowcroft and Bader deny that their business relationships could compromise their advisory role about China.
Bader: “My views are not uncritical.”
Scowcroft: “Whatever small business I do over there is irrelevant.”
Perry Link, a Princeton professor of East Asian Studies who has been banned from visiting China since 1996, thinks otherwise:
“When the route to lucrative consultancies after leaving office is as clear as it recently has been, officials might be induced to watch their words while still on the job,” Link said.
By the way, I should make clear that I disagree with Silverstein’s assertion that: “Constructive engagement isn’t working well for the United States or the Chinese people.” Things certainly could be better in China, but they have improved greatly in the last few decades, largely thank to China opening up and engaging the world. I don’t see a valid alternative to constructive engagement (Destructive Engagement? Constructive Disengagement?). - Tom
Hat tip to FEER
Obama’s Brother Runs Internet Company in China
Barack Obama has a half-brother living in Shenzhen who runs an Internet company that helps Chinese companies export to the US.
The company, called Worldnexus, assists Chinese companies set up websites for foreign customers. Their motto: “Good Communication is Good Business”.
Boilerplate says Worldnexus is registered with the Shenzhen city government and under the Chinese name 天下(TIAN XIA).
Mark’s name has been removed from the site, but I pulled the below image from the Google cache.
This is the text next to his name: 2005.05.01 －Mark Ndesandjo 晋升为WorldNEXUS公司的总经理.
Michael Sheridan of the Sunday Times wrote about the brother and company this weekend:
Mark Ndesandjo is the son of Barack Obama’s late father and his third wife, an American woman named Ruth Nidesand who runs the up-market Maduri kindergarten in Nairobi.
Obama, however, refers to him simply as “my brother” and says he was the only uncontested heir after their father, a Kenyan, died in a car crash in 1982.
Sheridan writes that Ndesandjo lives in Nanshan district of Shenzhen and has a long-term girlfriend in her 20s who is from landlocked Henan province. Ndesandjo has a degree from Brown University, a masters in physics from Stanford and an MBA from Emory, Sheridan writes.
Mark is one of Barack Obama senior’s eight children by four different women. Here is an Obama family tree showing the relationship.
There are, however, some questions about his Internet-based company, Sheridan writes.
Chinese officials said there are unanswered questions about his internet-based company, Worldnexus Ltd. It has provided corporate communications and website design to Chinese firms seeking customers in English-speaking markets, of which the United States is the biggest.
Worldnexus is not registered to conduct business in Shenzhen and officials at the city’s commercial administration bureau said this raised potential issues of taxation and compliance with the law by its customers.
Ndesandjo’s reply to an interview request: “Thanks for your interest. However I am not giving interviews at this time.”
It will not play well in Peoria that Obama’s half-brother is working to promote cheap Chinese exports into the United States, Sheridan muses.
Anybody know him or the company?
China votes for Barack Obama
At least that is the conclusion of the Asia Society.
The Asia Society compiled a nicely presented video of policy leaders from across Asia saying which US presidential candidate is viewed most favorably in their part of the world.
Barack Obama won hands down in countries across the region.
China would vote for Obama in part because he is from a minority ethnic group, said Shen Dingli of Shanghai’s Fudan University.
“Such a minority’s emergence represents a great achievement of American progress in terms of human rights and social equity,” Shen Dingli said, adding that Obama’s lack of experience might give some hesitation.
Indonesian respondents spoke about the significance of Senator Obama’s early childhood in the country.
Somewhat ironic to poll people living in countries with varying levels of electoral and dictatorial governments about how they feel about the US elections. Wonder how Myanmar would vote? Imagine Vietnam is pro-McCain. Anyone know?
In other Obama news out of Asia, the city named “Obama” in Japan’s Fukui Prefecture has been enjoying newfound fame, as Reuters reports.
NOTE: If you like this posting, you may want to check out the Asia advisors list for McCain and Obama.
Obama McCain advisors for China and Asia. Know them?
Anybody know them?
Barack Obama:
Directly in charge of the Asia team is Amb. Jeff Bader, ex-State, NSC, USTR, also in charge of China, and administering the team via Mona Sutphen, of Stonebridge International, directly to the Campaign via Denis McDonough, a former Sen. Daschle expert on energy, the environment and trade.
For ease of discussion and/or recognition, we’ve divided the Asia Group into “teams”, all under the general supervision of Bader, but we are assured that “basically everyone talks to everyone”.
The Japan team is supervised by Michael Schiffer, and includes former NSC-econ Matt Goodman, of Stonebridge; Derek Mitchell, CSIS; and academics Carol Gluck, Amy Searight, Gerry Curtis, and Skipp Orr, also a major player in Overseas Democrats.
The Korea team’s day to day work is by Frank Jannuzi of Sen. Biden’s staff, and Gordon Flake, Mansfield Center, with advice from Ambassadors Tom Hubbard, and Don Gregg, former President of The Korea Society, and Steve Bosworth, and arms control expert Joel Wit.
China is run directly by Bader, with assistance from Richard Bush, ex-AIT now Brookings; Ken Lieberthal, former NSC; Mike Lampton, SAIS; Evan Medeiros, back at RAND again; Bob Kapp, former president of the US-China Business Council; Kevin Nealer, The Scowcroft Group; Bob Suettinger, former NSC and CIA now consultant.
General Asia, SE Asia, et al group, including economic and environmental issues: Catherine Dalpino, Bob Gelbard, Liz Economy, Jamie Metzel, and Bob Oxnam.
John McCain:
Randy Scheunemann as chief of foreign and national security policy is the point man for liaison with former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger.
Former Deputy Secretary of State Rich Armitage enjoys a strong, long-standing personal relationship with McCain and should be listed as a “general guru” with an obvious personal interest in Asia, especially the US-Japan alliance.
Day to day campaign work is done by former Bush Administration defense, NSC and foreign policy officials Peter Rodman, Rick Williamson, Mike Green, the former NSC Senior Director for Asia, now at CSIS, with Dan Blumenthal, former DOD, now at AEI, Armitage International’s Randy Schriver, and McCain personal staffer Rich Fontaine.
- Hat tip to The Nelson Report by Chris Nelson, who put out this list on June 19, 2008.
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