James Fallows on public diplomacy with China
James Fallows has a follow-up post on how we should treat China. It begins:
In talking about Timothy Geithner’s warnings on Chinese "currency manipulation" several days ago, my main criticism involved proportion.
Yes, the dollar/RMB exchange rate is one important element of US-Chinese interactions. But even if we’re talking only about economic issues, it is not (in my view) the most important among them. And as soon as we think about the vast range of political, strategic, scientific, cultural and other ways in which the two countries will affect each other, it falls far down the list. I bet that from later historians’ perspectives, whether the two countries can successfully grapple with climate/environmental/energy issues will matter most about their dealings in these next few years.
So why would the Administration choose to kick things off by talking about currency wars — and nothing else
Two positive developments today. One is …
