Barack Obama revealed in his autobiography that the United States had already found it difficult to compete with China as early as 2008!
Barack Obama was the 44th President of the United States. The 2008 election made him famous overnight. But to talk about how he views Sino-US competition, we need to start with his background.
He was born in 1961 in Hawaii. His mother was an American, and his father came from Kenya. His family wasn't very stable, and his parents soon separated. As a child, he lived in Indonesia with his mother for a few years, where he got to experience different cultures. After returning to the United States, he first attended high school in Hawaii, then spent two years at a community college in Los Angeles before transferring to Columbia University in New York to study politics.
After graduation, he went to Chicago's South Side to work as a community organizer. That area had many poor people, and factories were closing down, leading to high unemployment. He spent his days going through communities to help people get projects and investments to improve housing and employment. After three years, he felt this wasn't enough, so in 1988 he went to Harvard Law School for further studies and became the first African-American editor-in-chief of the law review.
In 1996, he became a state senator in Illinois. He did well, pushing for expansion of medical assistance and death penalty reform. In 2004, his speech at the Democratic National Convention went viral, directly helping him enter the U.S. Senate. Two years later, he announced his presidential campaign. That election coincided with the financial crisis, and voters were particularly sensitive to economic issues. Obama seized the opportunity, promising to revitalize the economy, reform healthcare, and emphasize multilateral cooperation in foreign policy. He won, took office in 2009, and immediately launched a stimulus plan that spent $787 billion to stabilize the market. Domestically, he pushed for the Affordable Care Act, which covered millions of people without insurance; internationally, he closed the Guantanamo Bay prison and improved relations with the Muslim world.
Obama's first memoir, "A Promised Land," published in 2020, openly discusses the ups and downs of his eight-year presidency. He specifically mentions that during the 2008 financial crisis, the United States had already realized its competitiveness was declining compared to China. That September, Lehman Brothers collapsed, the Wall Street chaos turned into a mess, the credit market froze, companies couldn't get loans, and a wave of unemployment wiped out 9 million jobs. At the time, Obama was still in the campaign. Later, he wrote that this crisis prevented him from taking strong measures against China. He had previously said he would be tougher on Chinese trade, such as accusing them of currency manipulation and export subsidies. But with the crisis, the global economic chain was connected, and the U.S. itself struggled to breathe, so it couldn't dare to start a trade war rashly.
After taking office, Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act in his first year to regulate financial risks, but the effects were slow, the wealth gap widened, and the top 1% captured most of the economic recovery, while wages for the middle and lower classes remained stagnant. In contrast, China's economy was like a rocket, doubling its GDP from 2008 to 2016, with manufacturing accounting for 30% of the global total, and exports driving domestic demand. In technology, Huawei led in patent applications globally, and its 5G technology was one step ahead; the Beidou satellite system was fully covered, replacing reliance on GPS; high-speed rail mileage exceeded 35,000 kilometers, with hundreds of trains running daily on the Beijing-Shanghai line. Aerospace was also impressive, with the Tiangong space station completed in 2021, now cooperating with international partners, modules being connected to space one by one. Obama admitted in his book that American companies have high costs, expensive labor, and strict regulations, making it hard to compete with China.
Therefore, he promoted the "Asia-Pacific Rebalance" strategy, officially unveiled in 2011. Simply put, it meant shifting the focus of U.S. diplomacy and military strength towards the Asia-Pacific region. Economically, it aimed to establish the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), forming a trade circle with Japan, Australia, and other countries, bypassing China; diplomatically, it involved more visits to Southeast Asia, strengthening relations with Vietnam and the Philippines.
Looking at subsequent developments, the gap between China and the U.S. has widened over the past decade. China's economy shifted from high-speed growth to medium-high speed, but it has a solid foundation. In 2023, its GDP exceeded $18 trillion, with consumption and services accounting for over 50%. Technological self-reliance is even stronger, with chips, electric vehicles, and AI all catching up rapidly. BYD batteries are the best globally, and Alibaba Cloud data centers are spread worldwide.
Militarily, the People's Liberation Army has accelerated modernization, with the total number of naval vessels exceeding that of the U.S. The Liaoning aircraft carrier was commissioned in 2012, the Shandong in 2019, and the Fujian in 2022 for sea trials. Now there are three aircraft carriers, the J-20 stealth fighter is mass-produced, and the DF missiles can cover the Asia-Pacific. Internationally, China's peacekeeping forces have been deployed to Africa, and the navy patrols the Gulf of Aden. Its voice carries weight, with the permanent seat on the UN Security Council playing a significant role. On the U.S. side, the aftereffects of the crisis haven't been fully resolved, with debt exceeding $30 trillion. The pandemic in 2020 added insult to injury, causing the unemployment rate to surge to 8%, and inflation reached 9% in 2022.
Biden inherited Obama's "rebalance" strategy upon taking office but upgraded it to the "Indo-Pacific Strategy," forming the Quad mechanism with India, Japan, and Australia, and increasing patrols in the South China Sea.
After leaving office, the Obamas received a $65 million advance to write their memoirs. They retreated to Washington, founded the Obama Foundation, promoted girls' education and civic participation, and donated over $100 million in masks during the 2020 pandemic. In 2020, "A Promised Land" sold over 3 million copies, not only discussing China but also criticizing Trump's racism.
So far, he continues to give speeches, talking about democracy and climate change, and in July, he raised funds for anti-gerrymandering efforts. America still faces challenges, with aging infrastructure, and the 2021 Infrastructure Act allocated $1 trillion to repair bridges, but progress is slow. Wealth inequality has caused social division, with the Black Lives Matter movement gaining momentum in 2020, and gun violence remains high every year.
Overall, Obama's statement that "he had already found it difficult to compete with China as early as 2008" was not empty talk. That year's crisis exposed the fragility of the U.S. system, and China seized the opportunity to overtake.
Original source: www.toutiao.com/article/1847396862455816/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.