Chinese Checkers
February 20, 2010 / Bruce Stokes
National Journal
As China grows more powerful, the diplomatic game becomes harder, something the Obama administration discovered to its dismay in year one of its China policy.
The first generation of American leadership after World War II dealt with China by ignoring it. The second generation of postwar U.S. presidents embraced the new giant panda on the world stage and occasionally sparred with it. Now a third generation is recognizing that it will have to engage the growing panda, which has never been cuddly, as an equal on a broad range of issues-reforming the global financial system and responding to climate change, among others.



