"Obama set for historic visit to Myanmar; 1st US president to make the trip" by Jim Kuhnhenn | Associated Press, November 09, 2012
WASHINGTON — Less than two weeks after his reelection, President Obama will become the first US president to visit the once-pariah nation of Myanmar, drawing attention to the country’s shift to democracy and highlighting what his administration regards as a marquee foreign policy achievement.
I would say peeling Myanmar away from China is that in their view.
Obama will also travel to Cambodia, a first for a US president as well, and to Thailand during the Nov. 17-20 trip. In Cambodia, the president will attend the East Asia summit in Phnom Penh and meet with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The symbolic highlight of the trip, no doubt, is Obama’s stop in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, a country emerging from five decades of ruinous military rule. While there, Obama will meet with President Thein Sein and also with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, White House said.
While the trip places new focus on Obama’s foreign policy and to American attention to the Asian and Pacific region, it also comes as Obama begins sensitive negotiations with congressional leaders about how to avoid looming tax increases and steep cuts in defense and domestic spending.
Obama ended the longstanding US isolation of Myanmar’s generals, which has played a part in coaxing them into political reforms that have unfolded with surprising speed in the past year. The United States has appointed a full ambassador and suspended sanctions to reward Myanmar for political prisoner releases and Suu Kyi’s election to parliament....
The Obama administration regards the political changes in Myanmar as a top foreign policy achievement, and one that could dilute the influence of China in a country that has a strategic location between South Asia and Southeast Asia, regions of growing economic importance.
The Golden Triangle of Drugs, too.
But exiled Myanmar activists and human rights groups will probably criticize an Obama visit as premature, rewarding Thein Sein before his political and economic reforms have been consolidated. The military is still dominant and implicated in rights abuses. It has failed to prevent vicious outbreaks of communal violence in the west of the country that have left scores dead.
While no US president has ever visited Cambodia or Myanmar, Thailand is one of America’s oldest allies in Asia and has been a stop for US commanders in chief since the mid-1960s.
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"With strategic goals, President Obama visits Asia" by Jane Perlez and Peter Baker | New York Times, November 18, 2012
WASHINGTON — On the stump this fall, President Obama boasted that he had ‘‘brought more trade cases against China’’ than his predecessor had. In an ad, he asserted that his challenger ‘‘never stood up to China.’’ During a debate, Obama said he expanded trade with other Asian nations ‘‘so that China starts feeling more pressure’’ to play by the rules.
The contest with Mitt Romney is done, but the contest with China is only gathering steam. After a political campaign spent talking about how tough he was with Beijing, the president left for Asia on Saturday for his first postelection overseas trip, a whirlwind swing through China’s backyard that is laden with geopolitical implications.
Obama will make a historic visit to Myanmar to mark the emergence of the long-isolated country and encourage its migration from China’s orbit toward a more democratic future with the West.
He will also stop in Thailand, America’s longtime ally in the region as well as a friend of China’s. And he will fly to Cambodia for a summit meeting of a Southeast Asian organization as the United States tries to increase its influence in that part of the region.
With the election over, the White House has softened its language, and presents the trip not as an explicit attempt to contain China but as the next stage of its pivot to Asia, reorienting US foreign policy after a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan toward the economic and political future of the Pacific. On the cusp of a second term, Obama sees such a shift as a mission for the next four years and a possible legacy.
‘‘The president’s trip marks the beginning of the next phase of our rebalancing effort,’’ Thomas E. Donilon, the president’s national security adviser, said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. ‘‘When the president says the United States will play a larger and long-term role in the region, we intend to execute on that commitment.’’
But when the Obama team talks about ‘‘rebalancing,’’ Donilon said it meant ‘‘both toward the Asia-Pacific and within the Asia-Pacific,’’ meaning more engagement with nations such as Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia. As for China, he said, the relationship ‘‘has elements of both cooperation and competition.’’
The political centerpiece of the trip is the six-hour visit to Myanmar, which is considered strategic in the reorientation to Asia not only because of its location bordering China, but because its leaders have signaled their pique with China’s relentless search for natural resources and their willingness to tilt toward the West as a way of counterbalancing their imposing neighbor.
Although the trip to Yangon was scheduled to coincide with the Asian summit meeting, the symbolism of Obama’s visit — the first by a sitting US president — has not been lost on China, a longtime patron.
In Beijing, where Xi Jinping was just installed as the new leader in a once-in-a-decade transition, the trip is viewed as part of a continuing challenge to China’s rise. The government interprets America’s attention on the region, including the deployment of more troops and battleships, as an effort to encircle China.
We did the same to the Soviets.
‘‘The pivot is a very stupid choice,’’ said Jin Canrong, a professor at the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing. ‘‘The United States has achieved nothing and only annoyed China. China can’t be contained.’’
On China’s periphery, where its rapid military modernization and territorial claims in resource-rich seas are viewed warily, Obama’s pivot is mostly welcomed. Many in the region, however, worry about whether the United States has the money and will to follow through.
There is also a question about what impact the United States can have. China has the edge in trade; every country in the region except the Philippines does more business with China than with the United States.
‘‘That’s happened over the last five years, faster than expected,’’ said Peter Drysdale, head of the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research at the Australian National University....
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"Obama extends friendship, urges reforms in Myanmar" by Julie Pace | Associated Press, November 19, 2012
YANGON, Myanmar — Launching a landmark visit to long shunned Myanmar, President Obama said Monday he came to ‘‘extend the hand of friendship’’ to a nation moving from persecution to peace. But his praise and personal attention came with an admonition to those in charge: The work of ensuring and protecting freedoms has just begun.
On an overcast and steamy day, Obama touched down Monday morning, becoming the first US president to visit the Asian nation also known as Burma. Tens of thousands of people packed the streets to see his motorcade speed through the city. Many of them waved American flags and took photos with their smartphones.
The president was meeting with President Thein Sein, who has orchestrated much of his country’s recent reforms. On Monday, Myanmar set free dozens of political prisoners around the country in an amnesty that coincided with the visit of Obama. At least 44 political prisoners were among 66 detainees released, including several prominent human rights activists, said former prisoner of conscience Soe Tun.
Obama also planned to meet with longtime Myanmar democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi in the home where she spent years under house arrest, a gated compound with a lawn ringed by roses. Obama will close with a speech at the University of Yangon, where he is expected to praise the country’s progress toward democracy but urge further reforms.
‘‘Instead of being repressed, the right of people to assemble together must now be fully respected,’’ the president said in speech excerpts released by the White House. ‘‘Instead of being stifled, the veil of media censorship must continue to be lifted. As you take these steps, you can draw on your progress.’’
Obama’s visit to Myanmar was to last just six hours, but it carried significant symbolism, reflecting a remarkable turnaround in the countries’ relationship.
Obama has rewarded Myanmar’s rapid adoption of democratic reforms by lifting some economic penalties. The president has appointed a permanent ambassador to the country, and pledged greater investment if Myanmar continues to progress following a half-century of military rule.
In his speech, Obama recalls a promise he made upon taking office — that the United States would extend a hand if those nations that ruled in fear unclenched their fists.
‘‘Today, I have come to keep my promise, and extend the hand of friendship,’’ he said. ‘‘The flickers of progress that we have seen must not be extinguished. They must become a shining North Star for all this nation’s people.’’
Some human rights groups say Myanmar’s government, which continues to hold hundreds of political prisoners and is struggling to contain ethnic violence, hasn’t done enough to earn a personal visit from Obama. The president said from Thailand on Sunday that his visit is not an endorsement of the government in Myanmar, but an acknowledgment that dramatic progress is underway and it deserves a global spotlight.
Obama began his Asian tour in Bangkok, coming down the steps of Air Force One next to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in recognition of their final foreign trip together. Clinton is leaving the job soon. The president paid a courtesy call to the ailing 84-year-old US-born King Bhumibol Adulyadej in his hospital quarters. The king, the longest-serving living monarch, was born in Cambridge, Mass.
The president’s tour marks his formal return to the world stage after months mired in a bruising reelection campaign. For his first postelection trip, he tellingly settled on Asia, a region he has deemed as crucial to US prosperity and security. Aides say Asia will factor heavily in Obama’s second term as the US seeks to expand its influence in an attempt to counter China.
Even as we tell them that is not what this is about.
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"On trip to Asia, Obama defends visit to Myanmar" by Julie Pace | Associated Press, November 18, 2012
BANGKOK (AP) — On the eve of his landmark trip to Myanmar, President Barack Obama tried to assure critics that his visit was not a premature reward for a long-isolated nation still easing its way toward democracy.
‘‘This is not an endorsement of the government,’’ Obama said Sunday in Thailand as he opened a three-country dash through Asia. ‘‘This is an acknowledgement that there is a process under way inside that country that even a year and a half, two years ago, nobody foresaw.’’
Obama was set to become the first U.S. president to visit Myanmar with Air Force One scheduled to touch down in Yangon on Monday morning. Though Obama planned to spend just six hours in the country, the much-anticipated stop came as the result of a remarkable turnaround in the countries’ relationship.
The president’s Asia tour also marks his formal return to the world stage after months mired in a bruising re-election campaign. For his first postelection trip, he tellingly settled on Asia, a region he has deemed the region as crucial to U.S. prosperity and security.
Aides say Asia will factor heavily in Obama’s second term as the U.S. seeks to expand its influence in an attempt to counter China. China’s rise is also at play in Myanmar, which long has aligned itself with Beijing. But some in Myanmar fear that China is taking advantage of its wealth of natural resources, so the country is looking for other partners to help build its nascent economy....
And they think AmeriKa will be different? At least the Chinese build things.
And they think AmeriKa will be different? At least the Chinese build things.
‘‘I'm not somebody who thinks that the United States should stand on the sidelines and not want to get its hands dirty when there’s an opportunity for us to encourage the better impulses inside a country,’’ Obama said during a news conference with Thailand’s prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra.
The renewed instability in the Mideast is likely to trail Obama as he makes his way from Thailand to Myanmar and then Cambodia, his final stop before returning to Washington early Wednesday.
Obama began his Asian tour on a steamy day in Bangkok with a visit to the Wat Pho Royal Monastery. In stocking feet, the president and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walked around a golden statue of a sitting Buddha. The complex is a sprawling display of buildings with colorful spires, gardens and waterfalls.
Obama then paid a courtesy call to the ailing, 84-year-old U.S.-born King Bhumibol Adulyadej in his hospital quarters. The king, the longest serving living monarch, was born in Cambridge, Mass., and studied in Europe.
Obama planned talks in Myanmar with Prime Minister Thein Sein, who has orchestrated much of his country’s recent reforms, and was expected to meet with democracy activist Aung Sun Suu Kyi in the home where she spent years under house arrest.
The president has trumpeted Suu Kyi’s support of his outreach efforts, saying she was ‘‘very encouraging’’ of his trip.
The White House said Obama intended to express concern about ethnic tensions in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, where more than 110,000 people, the vast majority of them Muslims known as Rohingya, have been displaced.
The U.N. has said the Rohingya. who are widely reviled by the Buddhist majority in Myanmar, are among the world’s most persecuted people.
After Jews, of course.
The White House said Obama planned to press the matter with Thein Sein, along with demands to free remaining political prisoners.
The president also prepared to give a speech at Rangoon University, the center of the country’s struggle for independence against Britain and the launching point for many pro-democracy protests. The former military junta shut the dormitories in the 1990s fearing further unrest and forced most students to attend classes on satellite campuses on the outskirts of town....
After Jews, of course.
The White House said Obama planned to press the matter with Thein Sein, along with demands to free remaining political prisoners.
The president also prepared to give a speech at Rangoon University, the center of the country’s struggle for independence against Britain and the launching point for many pro-democracy protests. The former military junta shut the dormitories in the 1990s fearing further unrest and forced most students to attend classes on satellite campuses on the outskirts of town....
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The favor is reciprocated six months later:
"Obama welcomes Myanmar’s progress during leader’s visit; Activists decry invitation to former general" by Matthew Pennington | Associated Press, May 21, 2013
WASHINGTON — In a long-awaited White House visit, President Obama on Monday told Myanmar’s president that he appreciates the Asian leader’s efforts to lead the country in ‘‘a long and sometimes difficult, but ultimately correct, path to follow’’ toward democracy.
Obama spoke as he sat in the Oval Office with former general Thein Sein, who became the first president of Myanmar to visit the White House in 47 years. Activists object to the invitation because of concerns over human rights in the country, but it marks a turnaround in international acceptance for Myanmar after decades of isolation and direct military rule.
Obama credited Thein Sein’s leadership in political and economic reform in bringing about an end to significant tensions between their countries.
‘‘As I indicated to President Sein, countries that are successful are countries that tap into the talents of all people and respect the rights of all people,’’ Obama said. ‘‘And I'm confident that if Myanmar follows that recipe, that it will be not only a successful democracy but a thriving economy.’’
Obama cited Myanmar’s release of political prisoners, credible elections, more inclusiveness, and efforts to resolve ethnic conflicts. He said the two discussed institutionalizing reforms.
The Myanmar leader has led the shift from decades of direct military rule but has stalled on some reform commitments and failed to stop bloody outbursts of ethnic violence.
Obama raised the issue of continuing violence against Muslim communities.
‘‘The displacement of people, the violence directed toward them, needs to stop,’’ Obama said.
Unless, of course, it's done by our guys!
Thein Sein previously served in a repressive junta, and his meetings at the White House and Congress would have been all-but-impossible before he took the helm of a nominally civilian government in 2011. His name was deleted from a blacklist barring travel to the United States only in September.
I wonder if the same would be true were he persecuting Jews.
He arrived in Washington Saturday, six months after Obama made history with an unprecedented US presidential visit to the country also known as Burma.
The administration’s outreach to Myanmar’s generals has provided an important incentive for the military to loosen controls on citizens and reduce dependence on China.
Myanmar has been rewarded by relaxation of tough economic sanctions, and Thein Sein plans to address American businessmen keen to capitalize on the opening of one of Asia’s few untapped markets.
It was the first White House visit by a Burmese leader since a 1966 meeting with Ne Win, an independence hero-turned dictator, who began the nation’s descent from regional rice bowl to economic basket case.
The United States last month announced it is considering duty-free access for Myanmar to US markets.
Although Thein Sein was accorded the protocol due to a foreign president, his Washington paled next to that granted last September to Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who met Obama and was presented by Congress with the highest civilian award it can bestow.
Human rights activists said the invitation to Thein Sein sends the wrong message and wastes leverage to press for further change. Outside the White House, about 30 activists protested corruption in the Myanmar government.
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Related:
"Myanmar government ends direct media censorship" Associated Press, August 21, 2012
YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar abolished direct censorship of the media Monday in the most dramatic move yet toward allowing freedom of expression in the long-repressed nation. But related laws and practices that may lead to self-censorship raise doubt about how much will change.
Under the new rules, journalists will no longer have to submit their work to state censors before publication as they have for almost half a century. However, the same harsh laws that have allowed Myanmar’s rulers to jail and blacklist reported and to control the media in the name of protecting national security remain unchanged.
For decades, this Southeast Asian nation’s reporters had been regarded as among the most restricted in the world, subjected to routine state surveillance, phone taps, and censorship so intense that independent papers could not publish on a daily basis.
Well, at least the blog is still here.
Related: White House’s war on leaks stifles press
And Obama is complaining about them? This all before the Snowden revelations, too.
President Thein Sein’s reformist government has significantly relaxed media controls over the last year, though, allowing reporters to print material that would have been unthinkable during the era of absolute military rule.
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Related:
"Myanmar government ends direct media censorship" Associated Press, August 21, 2012
YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar abolished direct censorship of the media Monday in the most dramatic move yet toward allowing freedom of expression in the long-repressed nation. But related laws and practices that may lead to self-censorship raise doubt about how much will change.
Under the new rules, journalists will no longer have to submit their work to state censors before publication as they have for almost half a century. However, the same harsh laws that have allowed Myanmar’s rulers to jail and blacklist reported and to control the media in the name of protecting national security remain unchanged.
For decades, this Southeast Asian nation’s reporters had been regarded as among the most restricted in the world, subjected to routine state surveillance, phone taps, and censorship so intense that independent papers could not publish on a daily basis.
Well, at least the blog is still here.
Related: White House’s war on leaks stifles press
And Obama is complaining about them? This all before the Snowden revelations, too.
President Thein Sein’s reformist government has significantly relaxed media controls over the last year, though, allowing reporters to print material that would have been unthinkable during the era of absolute military rule.
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Letting Madie the Murderer Albright back in?
Look who else was let in for a visit:
The Nobel Peace laureate will be presented with Congress’s highest award during a 17-day visit that comes as the Obama administration considers easing remaining sanctions on the country, also known as Burma.
That's why Putin didn't win it?
In the latest step toward political opening, Myanmar announced a new round of prisoner releases, hours before Suu Kyi touched down in Washington.
Suu Kyi meets Tuesday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and is likely to visit the White House. She then goes to New York, the American Midwest, and California in a whirlwind of speaking engagements and award ceremonies, as if making up for lost time for the years of confinement that prevented her from traveling overseas since the late 1980s.
Since her release from house arrest in late 2010, Suu Kyi has gone from dissident to parliamentarian. Myanmar has shifted from five decades of repressive military rule, gaining global acceptance for a former pariah regime.
Now confident of her position inside Myanmar, Suu Kyi has in the past four months started to spread her wings....
Revered by Republicans and Democrats alike, Suu Kyi will get star treatment in the United States, too, although her schedule is being carefully planned to avoid upstaging Myanmar President Thein Sein, who arrives here the following week to attend the UN General Assembly’s annual gathering of world leaders....
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"Myanmar’s Suu Kyi begins US visit" by Matthew Pennington | Associated Press, September 18, 2012
WASHINGTON — Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, renowned for her peaceful struggle against military rule, began a marathon tour of the United States Monday, the latest milestone in her journey from political prisoner to globe-trotting stateswoman.
And CIA asset.
