Why did Obama become President of the United States?

Obama has been successfully elected as the President of the United States. What changes will occur to Sino-US relations? It's hard to guess at this point. After all, the United States faces too many problems and challenges; relatively speaking, Sino-US relations were not a hot topic during the general election, and they are not yet on the agenda.

However, we should note that Obama was elected on the basis of "change". In the international arena, Obama also has a very different ideology from Bush. We have reason to believe that Sino-US relations are unlikely to be an exception to the Obama-style "change" and may be adjusted according to the White House's new ideology.

Obama is a novice when it comes to China policy. Perhaps not one of the dozen or so most pressing issues that appear in his mind is China. Therefore, Sino-US relations are probably still under the control of his assistants and advisers, and he personally has not spent much time in this regard to conduct detailed research on specific policies. Even if he says something now, he is probably following the script based on the advice of his advisers. Once he takes specific issues seriously and makes decisions in the future, what he says now may not be fulfilled. This is almost common sense in U.S. presidential politics, which can be seen from the changes in the China policy of the first two presidents, Clinton and Bush, before and after they took office.

However, although we cannot predict what decisions Obama will make when faced with specific issues targeting China, we can know from what perspective he will use to grasp these issues. In this regard, he and McCain formed a sharp contrast. During a conversation around religious issues during the election process, the host asked the two what their attitude should be in the face of evil. McCain replied resolutely: "Defeat it!" Obama said: "Of course we have to fight evil. However, we should also realize that many mistakes and even sins in history happened precisely when we thought we were fighting evil. We must be fully aware of this." The two sides exchanged fire on the Iran issue during a TV debate. McCain continued to hold high the banner of "defeating evil" and said he would build a "democratic alliance" with U.S. allies to jointly deal with Iran. Obama immediately pointed out that this was tantamount to excluding Russia and China from having a say on this issue and could not be truly efficient. Unlike McCain, who is a "neoconservative" in diplomacy, Obama pays attention not to purely influence U.S. interests with ideology, but deals with specific issues on a concrete basis, so he will probably place more emphasis on technology and operation in diplomacy.

It should be said that post-war US diplomacy has been dominated by the ideology of the Cold War era. After the end of the Cold War, the ideological rival of the Soviet Union has disappeared, but the ideological framework of U.S. diplomacy has not been deconstructed. From 1992 to 2000, China became a hot topic every time there was an election. After 9/11, terrorism became the number one enemy of the United States, but China became a cooperative partner. The relationship between the two countries is relatively harmonious. However, this relationship cannot be rationalized by Bush's "neoconservative" framework. For the United States, Sino-US cooperation can only exist as a temporary exception in the "neoconservative" diplomatic framework, which has extremely strong objections. stability.

President Obama may use the concept of a multi-polar world order to rationally position Sino-US relations. The relationship between the two parties may enter the "post-ideological" era. He will intensify matter-of-fact bargaining with China on trade and other issues. For example, the quality of China's export products, the protection of intellectual property rights, environmental and labor conditions, the openness of the Chinese market, etc., may all be pushed to the negotiation table. After all, trade protectionism is a huge force supporting him, and he must give an account of this faction.

But overall, Obama coming to power is a good thing for Sino-US relations. China is gradually emerging as a real great power. It needs to confirm its legitimate position in the international order and assume the responsibilities of a great power on trade and other issues. On the positive side, the pressure from the United States on product quality, intellectual property rights, etc. can help China establish a healthy domestic market order. After all, Chinese consumers want safe products just as much as American consumers. Full protection of intellectual property rights is also the foundation for China to become an innovative society. In this regard, instead of passively dealing with pressure, China should proactively seek cooperation and actively learn relevant management techniques from the United States. At the same time, when dealing with the United States, China may as well shift from emphasizing the different values ??of the two sides to emphasizing that some of the values ??of the two sides are actually very close, but the expressions of these values ??are different.

Only in this way can China and the United States become important partners in stabilizing the world order.