Professor Minxin Pei was quoted in an NPR article regarding four upcoming before the United Nations. Here is what he had to say.
If only our president showed that reluctance to go abroad and commit us to expensive obligations... Were that it were so.Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California, does not expect Hu to pursue a particularly high profile or make any grand gestures "The Chinese leadership is accustomed to maintaining a low profile," he says. "Any Chinese leader who wants to grab the international limelight is vulnerable to criticism at home for committing China to expensive international obligations."
It's also a tough time for Hu to be away from home. Ethnic unrest has been simmering in parts of China, and leaders are busy making preparations for the upcoming celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1.
"If he had a choice, he would probably have skipped the G-20," Pei says. "He would love to have spent time at home to make sure the celebratory activities go forward without a hitch."
I have my doubts about how much that might actually be true -- are not the Chinese, as Dambisa Moyo points out in Dead Aid, buying up resources in Africa? -- but still, it'd be nice to think that at least one country in the planet was more concerned with growing its own economy than on posturing on the world stage.
