Found this little gem in The Guardian, written last week during the US-China S&ED talks. The author compares Beijing to the Republican party in D.C. and concludes that the Obama Administration is making much more progress with China than the GOP, the reasons being:

First, the Chinese get macroeconomics. On a phone call with reporters on the first day of the conference, a senior Obama administration official mused that one of the reasons that discussions had been so productive is that the two countries followed similar approaches to the financial crisis and global recession: a fiscal stimulus, loose monetary policy and a willingness to shift broad macroeconomic goals – from borrowing to savings and investment in the US, and from exports to domestic consumer demand in China.

Meanwhile, Republicans have tried to start bank runs, offered doomsday warnings of stagflation and played Herbert Hoover by urging massive effective budget cuts that would increase the negative effects of the recession.

Yep. Funny how much easier it is to be a deficit hawk when you don’t have the responsibility to run the government any more. Everyone except the brain dead understand that massive budget cuts during a recession is a recipe for disaster, but budget-oriented slogans make for good fundraiser mailouts.

China’s fiscal stimulus has been quite effective thus far, although there are some built-in defects that are worrying. Obama can only dream that Congress could have passed something comparable in the U.S.

Second, the Chinese get science. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding at the dialogue, laying out a framework to pursue emissions reductions, invest in low-carbon energy and protect the environment. This is further than the administration has gotten with many Republicans who refuse to believe that global climate change is even real, much less worth doing something about.

The author is quick to point out that the agreement does not necessarily mean substantive change any time soon. However, one has to agree that dealing with China is a far cry from talking to Republican legislators, some of whom don’t believe in evolution, think the earth is 6,000 something years old (and disbelieve the science behind carbon dating, I guess), and don’t care about climate change because Jesus is coming to rescue people “of faith” sometime in the next few decades.

Finally, the Chinese get non-zero sum competition. Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, raised a few eyebrows the other day when he argued that the US should maintain its fleet of expensive F-22 fighter planes in order to fight India, a country the US surely counts as a friend. But it was even worse when he corrected his statement, saying he meant to say the fighters were needed in case of conflict with China.

I wrote about this sad story last week. Only in a place like Texas (or D.C., for that matter) would a comment like Cornyn’s be applauded, but it probably was. The paranoid freakshow that is Republican neocon foreign policy is breathtaking.

Every word out of a Chinese government/military leader’s mouth is scrutinized for the slightest “Anti-American” sentiment, yet members of the U.S. Congress can say whatever aggressive thing they want without there being any negative repercussions.

I would disagree with the author slightly when he says that the Chinese get non-zero sum competition. I think they understand cooperation at the international level, but with respect to domestic propaganda, sometimes their realist foreign policy comes awfully close to that old competitive spirit. Just look at the State news agencies for some evidence; on a daily basis, it sometimes resembles nothing more than a list of everything China did well that day and everything embarrassing that occurred in Western countries.

All that being said, though, I would much rather deal with a country with a realist foreign policy that toots its own horn at home very loudly than a political group driven by an outdated Cold War ideology.

Perhaps the S&ED could have more frequent meetings?