Sam Sedaei is an international civil resistance trainer, producer and international affairs contributor. He wrote this piece on the Huffington Post:
… ever since President Obama’s inauguration, China has been especially uncooperative on a number of global issues. Kenneth Lieberthal — director of Brookings Institution’s China Center in Washington — says such testy relations in the first year of American administrations have historic precedence as the two countries are more willing to test each other. Nonetheless, China has shown to be particularly resistant to respond positively to Obama’s international charm offensive. Two of those major issues have been climate change and Iran. China sent a low level diplomat to negotiate with President Obama during the Copenhagen Conference on climate change in 2009 and unilaterally ensured the conference’s minimal success by resisting enforcement mechanisms for any agreement on carbon emissions. And as the military rulers in Iran proceed with horrific human rights crimes and lack of cooperation to address concerns about their nuclear program, China has shown unwilling to cooperate on sanctions on Sepah-e Pasdaran, also known as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
In response, the Obama Administration has started a deliberate and concerted effort to push back against China. Two days after the first year anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration, Senator Clinton criticized China by name for its internet censorship practices. A week later on January 30, President Obama announced its plan to sell 6 billion dollars’ worth of weapons to Taiwan, which China considers as parts of its territory as the island claims sovereignty. And President Obama announced earlier this month that he planned to meet with Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, whom China has accused of pursuing independence.
