In Asia, Bush Hopes to Advance Trade, but Soft-Pedal Iraq and North Korea - New York Times
November 15, 2005
In Asia, Bush Hopes to Advance Trade, but Soft-Pedal Iraq and North Korea
By DAVID E. SANGER
KYOTO, Japan, Tuesday, Nov. 15 - The first time President Bush visited Asia as president, just two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, he had little time or patience for a summit meeting that traditionally focused on trade and globalization. He talked only about terrorism, and insisted that everyone else follow his lead.
But when Mr. Bush arrives in this ancient Japanese capital tonight, his first stop on a four-nation tour, he will be embarking on a trip that sounds like those of his father's presidency and President Clinton's.
"The president is traveling to Asia to advance the interests of American workers, businesses and entrepreneurs," his national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, told reporters last week. Fighting terror and forcing North Korea to give up nuclear arms - subjects that loomed over his three previous Asian trips - will be raised, he said, but not stressed.
Even inside the White House, some wonder whether the president, under renewed pressure to explain Iraq, will stay on message. As one of his aides noted recently, "he doesn't even like to say the word 'globalization,' " and rarely discusses its complex trade-offs.
But after a protest-ridden tour of South America two weeks ago stalled his efforts to create a free-trade area of the Americas, and with his approval ratings at home at record lows, Mr. Bush may have little choice.
Among his Asian hosts, there is a growing sense that Mr. Bush's intense focus on Iraq and counterterrorism has left American policy toward the region adrift. While the White House disputes that characterization, there is no question that Mr. Bush's tone has changed.
As Washington's dependence on trade with China has risen, Mr. Bush's criticism of its record on human rights and democratization has lost its edge. Similarly, his once-clear warnings that a nuclear-armed North Korea is "intolerable" or Vice President Cheney's observation, on a trip to China, that "time is not on our side" in negotiations have given way to a plea for patience. He and Mr. Hadley have deflected questions about the implications of the Central Intelligence Agency's estimate that over the past two years the North has produced enough nuclear fuel to make six weapons.
Mr. Bush's visit starts here among Japan's greatest cultural treasures, which the White House hopes will provide a quietly Zen antidote to the raucous reception he received in South America.
But by the time he arrives Wednesday night in Pusan, South Korea, for the annual Asian economic summit meeting, protests are likely: anti-Americanism, particularly directed at Mr. Bush, is resurgent in South Korea. He then goes on to Beijing for a two-day visit, followed by a presidential first, a visit to Mongolia, which has contributed about 160 troops to Iraq.
Throughout, the trick for Mr. Bush is to counter his image in Asia as a man more consumed with Iraq and terror than such topics as assuring that China's rise does not threaten the region's security arrangements, and managing the renewal of bitterness between Japan and its onetime enemies in World War II, China and South Korea.
"They are getting really tired of the one note that came out of the Bush administration for so many years, especially on counterterrorism" said Edward Lincoln, a longtime Japan scholar. "They think there is a lot more going on in the region than that."
Yet Mr. Bush finds himself in the same position his father did in a disastrous 1991 visit to Japan: while embracing open markets, he must make clear back home that he is not abandoning strategies to deal with the inexorable movement of manufacturing jobs to Asia. Fourteen years later, the deficits with China - $146.3 billion through September - are more than twice the level than with Japan. Yet, so far the administration has failed to convince the Chinese to let their undervalued currency float, a step that would likely make Chinese exports more expensive and thus less competitive.
Mr. Bush's biggest challenge may come in how he talks about China as a competitor - for both economic and diplomatic influence, from Southeast Asia to the oil fields of the Middle East.
So far, Mr. Bush has chosen to talk instead about memories from a simpler time: his visit to China exactly 30 years ago, as the ice was breaking with Beijing and his father was America's most senior representative in the country.
"Everybody was on bicycles," he said last week in an interview on Phoenix Television, a Chinese broadcaster. "I rode all over the place in Beijing, which was fascinating," he said, recalling "how odd people thought I looked."
In Asia, Bush Hopes to Advance Trade, but Soft-Pedal Iraq and North Korea
By DAVID E. SANGER
KYOTO, Japan, Tuesday, Nov. 15 - The first time President Bush visited Asia as president, just two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, he had little time or patience for a summit meeting that traditionally focused on trade and globalization. He talked only about terrorism, and insisted that everyone else follow his lead.
But when Mr. Bush arrives in this ancient Japanese capital tonight, his first stop on a four-nation tour, he will be embarking on a trip that sounds like those of his father's presidency and President Clinton's.
"The president is traveling to Asia to advance the interests of American workers, businesses and entrepreneurs," his national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, told reporters last week. Fighting terror and forcing North Korea to give up nuclear arms - subjects that loomed over his three previous Asian trips - will be raised, he said, but not stressed.
Even inside the White House, some wonder whether the president, under renewed pressure to explain Iraq, will stay on message. As one of his aides noted recently, "he doesn't even like to say the word 'globalization,' " and rarely discusses its complex trade-offs.
But after a protest-ridden tour of South America two weeks ago stalled his efforts to create a free-trade area of the Americas, and with his approval ratings at home at record lows, Mr. Bush may have little choice.
Among his Asian hosts, there is a growing sense that Mr. Bush's intense focus on Iraq and counterterrorism has left American policy toward the region adrift. While the White House disputes that characterization, there is no question that Mr. Bush's tone has changed.
As Washington's dependence on trade with China has risen, Mr. Bush's criticism of its record on human rights and democratization has lost its edge. Similarly, his once-clear warnings that a nuclear-armed North Korea is "intolerable" or Vice President Cheney's observation, on a trip to China, that "time is not on our side" in negotiations have given way to a plea for patience. He and Mr. Hadley have deflected questions about the implications of the Central Intelligence Agency's estimate that over the past two years the North has produced enough nuclear fuel to make six weapons.
Mr. Bush's visit starts here among Japan's greatest cultural treasures, which the White House hopes will provide a quietly Zen antidote to the raucous reception he received in South America.
But by the time he arrives Wednesday night in Pusan, South Korea, for the annual Asian economic summit meeting, protests are likely: anti-Americanism, particularly directed at Mr. Bush, is resurgent in South Korea. He then goes on to Beijing for a two-day visit, followed by a presidential first, a visit to Mongolia, which has contributed about 160 troops to Iraq.
Throughout, the trick for Mr. Bush is to counter his image in Asia as a man more consumed with Iraq and terror than such topics as assuring that China's rise does not threaten the region's security arrangements, and managing the renewal of bitterness between Japan and its onetime enemies in World War II, China and South Korea.
"They are getting really tired of the one note that came out of the Bush administration for so many years, especially on counterterrorism" said Edward Lincoln, a longtime Japan scholar. "They think there is a lot more going on in the region than that."
Yet Mr. Bush finds himself in the same position his father did in a disastrous 1991 visit to Japan: while embracing open markets, he must make clear back home that he is not abandoning strategies to deal with the inexorable movement of manufacturing jobs to Asia. Fourteen years later, the deficits with China - $146.3 billion through September - are more than twice the level than with Japan. Yet, so far the administration has failed to convince the Chinese to let their undervalued currency float, a step that would likely make Chinese exports more expensive and thus less competitive.
Mr. Bush's biggest challenge may come in how he talks about China as a competitor - for both economic and diplomatic influence, from Southeast Asia to the oil fields of the Middle East.
So far, Mr. Bush has chosen to talk instead about memories from a simpler time: his visit to China exactly 30 years ago, as the ice was breaking with Beijing and his father was America's most senior representative in the country.
"Everybody was on bicycles," he said last week in an interview on Phoenix Television, a Chinese broadcaster. "I rode all over the place in Beijing, which was fascinating," he said, recalling "how odd people thought I looked."
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