Candidate Obama often talked of the potential for transformation, for radical change. The slogan “Yes we can” had all levels of positive implications. What was missing in the campaign was a clear strategy to lay out what that transformation and radical change would be, let alone what we could do. Certainly the personality of Barack Obama was itself a transformation and change if not proof of what had been transformed in American race relations. Yes, we, citizens of the United States did something when he was elected. And, yes, his election itself was a transformation and radical change.
President Obama’s trip to Japan and China represents transformation and change, but not necessarily positive transformation and change for the United States. In Japan, the President had to explain why American troops should continue to be stationed in Okinawa. The troops’ presence is a vestige of World War II, just as are American troops in Germany. The people of Japan are hostile to the presence, not the least because of outrageous behavior by some of the soldiers. Whereas U.S. soldiers were welcomed at the end of World War II as positive occupiers – how different from Iraq and Afghanistan today – they have obviously outlived their welcome. U.S. presence in Japan is a force projection by the United States that has less and less positive resonance in Japan.
As for China, President Obama must convince Chinese authorities to continue lending to the United States. The power relations between the two countries have shifted. Yes, they still need each other, but because of economic dependence on China, the United States can no longer lecture the Chinese on human rights or how they should govern. Everyone knows that the U.S. is dependent on Chinese lending, and that there would be catastrophic consequences if the Chinese sold off their dollar reserves.
President Obama is not to blame for these transformations and changes. I am sure he is more than aware of the changing power relations in the world. But, for the American people, these changes are certainly not what they bargained for. The problem for President Obama is to continue giving positive implications of change to the American people while negotiating new relations based on reduced American power. His Asian agenda confirms those changes.
