Washington Extra – A Deng Xiaoping Moment?
Maybe it’s the careful, consensus-oriented system that produces them, but China’s leaders in recent years have not exactly exuded personality. President Hu Jintao is famous for his stiff manner and scripted speaking style. Jiang Zemin was slightly more relaxed, and enjoyed showing off his English language skills and knowledge of U.S. history.
Washington on Tuesday will get its first close look at China’s next president, current Vice President Xi Jinping, who has a reputation for being more open and refreshingly direct than some of his predecessors. It may be too much to hope for a “Deng Xiaoping moment,” a 1979 turning point in Sino-American cultural relations when the diminutive Deng, China’s great modernizer, attended a rodeo in Simonton, Texas, donned a giant cowboy hat and wowed the crowd. Deng was then China’s vice premier.
Xi has conflicting needs on this visit. He wants to show peers and the public back home that he can handle the American account, China’s most important relationship. He visited Iowa in 1985 and, by all accounts, the experience affected him. He also wants to strike a good working relationship with the White House and Capitol Hill, which could help both sides handle a daunting array of disagreements: human rights, the South China Sea, China’s currency, and Obama’s more aggressive posture in Asia, to name a few.
But Xi also won’t want to make any waves that could complicate his ascendance to the top of China’s pyramid, still 13 months away. So a jaunty tractor ride when he returns to Iowa later this week may not be in the cards.
Here are our top stories from Washington…
Obama election-year budget aims to spur hiring President Barack Obama called for new spending to boost growth and higher taxes on the rich, laying out an election-year vision for America in a budget that drew heavy fire from Republicans for failing to curb huge deficits. Obama’s 2013 spending proposal is expected to go nowhere in a divided Congress and is widely seen as more of a campaign document that frames his economic pitch to voters and seeks to shift the focus from deficits to economic growth. For more of this story by Alister Bull and Laura MacInnis, read here. For a story on the Arab Spring and the budget by Susan Cornwell, read here. For a story on proposed dividend tax hike by Kim Dixon and Patrick Temple-West, read here.
The Pope blessed Ted Kennedy
As a divorcee who was pro-choice on abortion, the United States’s most prominent Catholic politician was not exactly in the Vatican’s good books.
Yet Pope Benedict XVI blessed the terminally ill Senator Edward Kennedy, according to correspondence made public at his burial in Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday.
Kennedy, whose political career was marred by scandal, asked for the Pope’s prayers in a letter that was handed to the pontiff by President Barack Obama in Rome on July 10.
“I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines. I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and, although I continue treatment, the disease is taking its toll on me. I am 77 years old and preparing for the next passage of life,” Kennedy wrote.
“I know that I have been an imperfect human being, but with the help of my faith, I have tried to right my path.”
In his nearly 50 years in the Senate — Kennedy wrote — he championed the rights of the poor, opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. His commitment to accessible healthcare for all Americans was the political cause of his life, the dying senator wrote to the pontiff.
“I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness, and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings. I continue to pray for God’s blessings on you and our Church and would be most thankful for your prayers for me.”
Sally is right. It is not the place of the Pope to judge; Jesus does that. One wonders if the Pope’s message to Kennedy was not more detailed like, “repent for your promotion of abortion, etc…” Prayers for the sinner are very powerful inducements to the power of the Holy Spirit to help the dying. Many holy biblical characters blessed people. I am sure it meant more than just a little. Maybe the blessing will initiate a process of reconcillation enabling the sinner to be “born again” or accept Christ before the moment of death. Did’t Jesus give us the parable of the prodigal son or the parable of the laborers that were paid the same wage dispite the fact that they started at different times of the day? Maybe Ed gave himself over to the will of God just before he died and maybe we will see good ol’ Ed if we make it to Heaven. Wouldn’t that be great?
The First Draft: Obama and the Pope
President Barack Obama heads to Africa on Friday on the final stop of a weeklong trip that included visits to Russia and Italy, but before leaving Rome he will visit with Pope Benedict.
Obama has had an uneasy relationship with some Roman Catholics because of his support for abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research, which the church opposes.
He faced protesters when he gave a graduation speech at Notre Dame University, although his call for a “fair-minded” discussion on abortion earned several standing ovations.
But his relations with the Vatican have been cordial and he has spoken to the pope on the telephone. Obama told reporters before the trip that “there are going to be some areas where we’ve got deep agreements, there are going to be some areas where we’ve got some disagreements.”
For more Reuters political news, click here.
- Photo credit: Reuters/Osservatore Romano
The facts rule!
Sciences rule!
The truth rules!
everything else is just he said and she said… lol
