The man is on record minimizing American exceptionalism so this, within a month of his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, is no real surprise:
Voice of America (VOA) plans to end all radio and TV broadcasts in Mandarin and Cantonese starting in October amid a budget cut plan announced by US President Barack Obama, reports said yesterday.
The decision is highly controversial and has already engendered some strong reactions among China watchers.
“Shocking and idiotic,” said Arthur Waldron, professor of international relations at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on China.
“Information is our strong point. As true news about China comes out, it will be easier for us to deal with them. Radios are very effective indeed at shaping public opinion,” he said.
“I would think this was bad satire, but I fear it is true. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the world situation and correlation of forces,” Waldron said.
Or… it shows that attempts to spread American concepts of freedom and liberty are items not seen to be terribly important by the Obama administration who likely bowed to related Chinese demands a month ago during Juntao’s visit to DC.
No, it’s not bad satire. Yes, it’s terribly bad governance… unless you’re attempting to foist Marxist/Communist/Socialist policy on the masses.
Then it’s terribly effective governance.
