Communist China heyday under George Bush, worries about new administration

(Asia Times Online): "All-in-all, China has had much to be thankful for during the Bush years. Even the president's biggest mistake, the war in Iraq, worked to Beijing's advantage, stretching America's military capacity and weakening its international reputation as China's continued to rise....

• From a Chinese perspective, Bush has been a good steward of the Sino-American relationship. Consider, for example, the Strategic Economic Dialogue the two countries began in 2006

• under Bush's secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, the former chief executive officer of
• Goldman Sachs and a long-time
• friend of Beijing.

One key, if unspoken, agreement of these talks was that the

• US would mostly look the other way as China manipulated its currency, the yuan, to fuel its export-driven juggernaut of an economy,
• which has averaged double-digit growth during Bush's tenure.

The Bush administration also blinked as the central government continued to trample on human rights in China.

• The crackdown was particularly apparent during the buildup to last summer's Olympic Games,

when Beijing did its best to eliminate any possibility that its international coming-out party would be marred

• by the embarrassment of political protests."...

And MLB's misplaced hopes for a cash bonanza in Communist China topple at this same moment. (sm)

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