I didn’t watch the debate (I might later if I can find a spare hour and a half and a decent feed) but have read enough reactions, spin, and prognostications to give me an impression of what happened. After all, in American politics, substance typically means very little during election season.
IR blogger Dan Drezner watched the debate and asked, rhetorically, which foreign policy topic was missing. The answer is China. Nary a word was spoken by either candidate about the Middle Kingdom, a startling omission when considering how important US/China relations are to world affairs.
There are two explanations for why China was ignored, one incidental and one important. First, the financial crisis dominated the first half of a debate meant to focus entirely on foreign policy, so the amount of time dedicated to world issues was truncated significantly. Perhaps had the debate lasted thirty minutes longer the subject would have swung around to China and East Asia.
Secondly, there simply isn’t much breathing room between the two candidates’ positions on China, just as there really hasn’t been much in the past thirty-five odd years. Since Nixon’s visit and the restoration of Sino-US relations in the 1970s, there has generally been a broad consensus across the mainstream political spectrum about China. Both Republicans and Democrats tacitly acknowledge the “One China” policy while still protecting Taiwan. Both parties favor economic engagement, though both also lapse into populist rhetoric on occasion and denounce outsourcing. Both admonish Beijing for human rights abuses, including liberal Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and conservative Republicans like George W. Bush. Both parties agree that China should apply more pressure on various rogue nations, though neither party knows how to go about persuading them.
Barack Obama and John McCain have extremely divergent views on Iraq, Afghanistan, India/Pakistan, the Middle East, Israel, and just about every other important foreign policy consideration within the American purview. Yet on China, the two don’t have much to discuss, which is ultimately why China is typically omitted in foreign policy debates.
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