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Sometimes, the most interesting part of a political speech what is not said. On Thursday the President Barack Obama has a speech in Australia's Parliament in which he the rationale and the priorities of the U.S. policy shift towards the Asia-Pacific region. The speech was largely about China, but Mr. Obama hardly dared to say of the Dutch name out loud. The complexity and sensitivity of the US-China relationship were on full display, for those to read between the lines.
Much of the speech wanted China's neighbors about America's involvement in regional security in the face of Chinese reassure rising power. The United States, said Mr. Obama, "will deter threats to the peace" and keep her obligations to allies including Japan, South Korea and Australia. It will fix a "more flexible" military attitude, including basing Marines in Northern Australia by and by training of the Marine and land forces of regional partners. It will also "new capabilities," an oblique phrase may refer to ship-based drone aircraft, which have the potential to significantly expand the range of U.S. air and naval forces deploy.
The rest of the speech addressed several other hot-button issues in the US-China relations. For example, the President stressed the need to ensure that "trade and freedom of navigation are not bothered" and that "countries with large surpluses take action to promote the demand at home." He called for a "level playing field" for cases where "each nation plays by the rules" and "intellectual property and new technologies that fuel innovation be protected; and where currency market driven so no nation has an unfair advantage. " In addition, he spoke strongly about enforcement and human rights workers ' rights, in particular. These messages were clearly intended mainly for China.
Amazing, however Obama barely mentioned China in the speech. The text of his speech was 50 members long, but he referred to China in only one of these paragraphs.
This omission served a diplomatic goal. China is extremely sensitive for American criticism – and even more so to what it sees as American interference in the region. By speak indirectly, could President Obama of China nervous neighbors, while communicating his pleas to China, along with implicit warnings – without unnecessarily insulting or provoking reassure Beijing.
Nevertheless, isn't it striking that this messages so cant, and that the relations between the two main countries remain fragile so that a speech which is essentially about China must be communicated disguised as something else?
The silences in Mr. Obama the speech were so eloquently as his words.
This article was originally published Canadian International Council dispatchthe.
Photo courtesy of Reuters.
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