Editor's Note: Every week, the Global Public Square brings you some must-read editorials from around the world addressed to America and Americans. The series is called Listen up, America!
U.S. troops are out of Iraq, and U.S.-led combat operations in Afghanistan could wind down by the end of next year. At the same time, the U.S. has pivoted its attention to the Pacific and to an ascendant China. This has not gone unnoticed by the nations in the region.
China – “It is natural to see the US, which is used to being No.1 in the world, feel uncomfortable and even uneasy about China's rise,” says an editorial in the Global Times, a newspaper owned by the country's communist party.
“But they should first realize that the rise of China is inevitable as long as China can maintain a peaceful development environment. In this sense, the most effective way for the US to contain its development is to damage the peaceful environment in China and bring it into chaos.”
China – "The Philippines has signaled during a recent bilateral defense dialogue that it would expand the US military presence on its soil," says another editorial in the Global Times, adding, "China must respond to this move."
"The Philippines is a suitable target to impose such a punishment. A reasonable yet powerful enough sanction can be considered. It should show China's neighboring area that balancing China by siding with the US is not a good choice."
Editor's Note: Every week, the Global Public Square brings you some must-read editorials from around the world addressed to America and Americans. The series is called Listen up, America!
Americans are not the only ones following the race for the Republican presidential ticket. In a column earlier this week, Fidel Casto, former leader of Cuba, called the Republican primary the "greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been." Others outside the U.S are interested as well.
Germany - “Those who follow this race daily may have long since lost perspective on how absurd it is,” writes Marc Pitzke in the Hamburg-based Der Spiegel. Commenting on CNN's debate in Florida earlier this week, Pitzke writes,
“For 120 minutes they "debated" the "hot topics," producing sound bites but offering no insight into how these men would cope with the enormous challenges facing the U.S. The most important topic for voters, the economy, wasn't addressed at all.”
Turkey - “Mr. Gingrich is the ultimate tough politician,” writes Mustafa Akyol in the Istanbul-based Hurriyet Daily News. Besides Obama, Akyol says, Gingrich “seems to have two main enemies: 'socialism' (which would be called the welfare state in this part of the world) and secularism.”
“The latter is an especially big theme in Gingrich’s campaign, as he routinely condemns the “anti-religious bigotry” of the “American elite,” which he sees as the root of all evils. … I must say, at least some of Gingrich’s criticisms against secularism make sense to me."
Editor's Note: Every week, the Global Public Square brings you some must-read editorials from around the world addressed to America and Americans. The series is called Listen up, America!
President Obama announced last week he was downsizing the Pentagon due to concerns about outsized government spending and mounting debt. But these cuts carry an important caveat, as the president made clear, “we will be strengthening our presence in the Asia Pacific, and budget reductions will not come at the expense of that critical region.”
With the turn toward East Asia—and toward a rising China in particular—President Obama’s strategy has attracted a great deal of attention in the region.
China—Washington “should abstain from flexing its muscles, as this won't help solve regional disputes,” writes Yu Zhixiao in Xinhua.
“If the United States indiscreetly applies militarism in the region, it will be like a bull in a china shop, and endanger peace instead of enhancing regional stability.”
Editor's Note: Every week, the Global Public Square brings you some must-read editorials from around the world addressed to America and Americans. The series is called Listen up, America!
President Obama is focused on East Asia and the Pacific this week. After attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hawaii last weekend, Obama traveled to Australia where, on Thursday, he addressed the parliament. His message: "In the Asia Pacific in the 21st century, the United States of America is all in."
Later that day, President Obama traveled to the city of Darwin along the northern coast, where the U.S. announced it will station 2,500 Marines. The summit and travel, which also include a stop in Indonesia, are seen as the U.S. shifting attention to the Pacific - and to a rising China - as troops withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan. Here are some of the international responses to what Secretary of State Clinton recently dubbed "America's Pacific Century." FULL POST
Editor's Note: Every week, the Global Public Square brings you some must-read editorials from around the world addressed to America and Americans. The series is called Listen up, America!
CANADA—“More and more, it looks like the centre will be an orphan in 2012,” writes Konrad Yakabuski in the Toronto-based Globe and Mail.
“The Occupy Wall Street movement that is mushrooming across the United States (with Canadian copycats) threatens to further turn the 2012 election cycle into a shouting match between the extremes of U.S. politics.” FULL POST
Editor's Note: Every week, the Global Public Square brings you some must-read editorials from around the world addressed to America and Americans. The series is called Listen up, America!
Australia—“Thousands protested against capitalism yesterday in New York and Washington, and millions supported their anti-corporate message online,” says an editorial in the Sydney-based Australian.
“At the same time, thousands of people placed flowers and candles at Apple stores, and millions more posted messages online, to mourn the death of one of the most successful corporate leaders we have seen.”
Germany—“The 20th century was called the American Century, not least by Americans themselves. The reasons had mostly to do with political power,” says an editorial in the Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung.
"The 21st century also began as an American Century, but mostly because of companies like Microsoft and Apple and figures like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Gates has always stood for software that influences a large portion of the new world. Jobs, on the other hand, has created a significant group of devices that define the first phase of the digital era, in style as well as popular thought."
Editor's Note: Every week, the Global Public Square brings you some must-read editorials from around the world addressed to America and Americans. The series is called Listen up, America!
In his last official statement, retiring Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen accused the country's main intelligence agency, the ISI, of actively supporting the Haqqani network, which has been blamed for a recent assault on the U.S. embassy in Kabul. The following are responses from around the world to that accusation.
Pakistan – “The Haqqanis have practically been embraced as one of our own,” writes Cyril Almeida in the Karachi-based Dawn.
"What was once an establishment in denial has become a country in denial. And where previously we were lying to outsiders, now we are lying to ourselves."
Editor's Note: Every week, the Global Public Square brings you some must-read editorials from around the world addressed to America and Americans. The series is called Listen up, America!
Israel – Diminishing American power means Israeli leaders have a “small window of opportunity” for an agreement, writes Leon Hadar in the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz.
“The failure to defeat the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, the specter of a nuclear Pakistan turning into a failed state, rising concerns about the decline of Iraq into a civil war after the U.S. withdrawal, the growing power of Iran and its regional satellites, the threat that the Arab Spring is posing to regimes that were willing at least to accept the U.S.-backed status-quo and the deadlocked Israel-Palestinian peace process − all these are clear indications that the era of Pax Americana in the Middle East is over.”
Editor's Note: Every week, the Global Public Square brings you some must-read editorials from around the world addressed to America and Americans. The series is called Listen up, America! This week we look at what papers around the world are saying about the anniversary of September 11 - from conspiracy theories in Saudi Arabia to exasperated calls from China to foreboding messages in Australia.
Australia – “The paradox of 9/11 is that it may yet be overwhelmed by the 2008 global financial crisis as a long-term blow to U.S. power, authority and self-esteem,” writes Paul Kelly, editor-at-large of the Sydney-based Australian.
“The extent of U.S. economic self-harm may exceed the harm from al Qaeda's lethal strike a decade ago. The irony is that Australia, tied to the U.S. in security terms, is divorced from the U.S. in economic terms and has escaped the internal economic crises that plague the U.S. and Europe.”
Editor's Note: Every week, the Global Public Square brings you some must-read editorials from around the world addressed to America and Americans. The series is called Listen up, America!
Will Americans leave the U.S. for better jobs?
“[C]ould America, that great nation of immigrants, become in harder times a nation of emigrants?” asks Anand Giridharadas in the Dubai-based Khaleej Times. “Could the metropolises of China one day have Americatowns?”
““[I]f Americans ever became willing to leave en masse, one could imagine them owning foreign Burger King franchises or opening small restaurants to take their cuisine to the world, bringing sorely needed upgrades to the authenticity of barbecue ribs and coleslaw from Mumbai to Buenos Aires.”
“Laid-off American factory workers might make terrific foremen in China and India, where entry-level labour is plentiful but the pool of potential managers is woefully thin.” FULL POST
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