In his State of the Union address on Wednesday, President Obama mentioned China a total of three times. One was to praise China’s commitment to cut carbon emissions. The second was to encourage American manufacturing executives to bring back jobs from China. The third was a call-to-arms to prevent China from writing the trade rules in the Asia Pacific.
China watchers inhaled sharply at this third point, given the sensitivity in China about who should be calling the shots in Asia. However, the media coverage in China of Obama’s remarks has been surprisingly restrained, suggesting that the leadership does not want to encourage anti-American nationalist fervour at the moment.
The language and tone also reiterates China’s view of the US role in the world, its own place in the world order, and how both might change in the future.
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