Barack Obama and Hu Jintao

By Zach Foster

Many are puzzled and astonished by the flurry of information and rumors surrounding the President’s visits with Hu Jintao, President of the People’s Republic of China.  Democrats seem to be openly praising the President as a peace maker, while Republicans are very wary of this political courtship.  Some may evenly be using the President’s cross-visits with Hu Jintao as yet another convenient building block to further support their theory that the President is a Marxist-Leninist.

People are wary that Obama and Hu are trading military technologies and other sorts of things that make pacifists and gung-ho nationalists alike cringe.  However, no one seems to be taking in the big picture.  The President’s dialogue with the PRC continues a tradition dating back to President Nixon’s visit to Red China in 1972.  If Americans can manage to look past the ludicrous episode that was the Watergate scandal, they can remember that Nixon had some of the best foreign policy in American history.  The re-establishment of relations with Red China ensured that there would not be any further armed conflict between the United States and the PRC (Remember the U.S. had fought them in the Korean War, and Mao’s willingness to send his troops into the meat grinder is the only reason North Korea exists today).  It also further isolated the Soviet Union in the charade of Communist Internationalism, helping to bring about the eventual demise of the evil empire.

Yet, let us go back to those two words guaranteed to raise emotions: North Korea.  Yes, it’s old news that they sank the South Korean ship; yes, it’s old news that they shelled Yeonpyong Island and killed two ROK Marines and civilians.  Yes, it’s old news that the Red Dynasty in Korea has introduced its new leader Kim Jong Un.  This may come as a surprise to some, but alas, the North Korean leaders are thugs!  Though they are small, like an angry Chihuahua that keeps biting fingers and hands, they are a rabid dog that can cause damage even to the bigger dog that destroys it.  If we can look back to 1950-1953 and put two and two together to make four, we can come to the conclusion that the PRC hold’s North Korea’s leash.  The North Koreans know that if they lose the Chinese, they lose any assurance of survival.  Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un know they have the friendship of Hu Jintao, but now, so does Barack Obama.  If the President can get the Chinese to continue holding North Korea’s leash, then by all means, let the President carry on in the tradition of Nixonian foreign policy.