The Global Times has carried two withering editorials in recent days. Lame duck swims to Asia

If President Barack Obama expects to escape the spate of brutal post-election news by traveling 6,000 miles and 12 time zones to Asia, he’s in for a surprise.

Regional players are taking stock of whether the U.S. president once seen as a global rock star will now have diminished heft on the world stage, and some are delivering their verdict well ahead of his arrival Monday for an eight-day trip to China, Burma and Australia.


Global Times, an English-language newspaper published by China’s state-run People’s Daily, has carried two withering editorials in recent days.

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“The lame-duck president will be further crippled” in the wake of a GOP victory, the newspaper warned in one before the voting was complete. “He has done an insipid job, offering nearly nothing to his supporters. US society has grown tired of his banality.”

“This will be the most recent manifestation of America’s weakness and they will figure that into their deliberation,” said Jon Hunstman, a Republican who served as U.S. Ambassador to China under Obama and pointed to Chinese adeptness at sizing up power. “They will see it through that prism and consider whether this president still has the swat to actually get anything done.”

Official Chinese spokespeople, however, have been more restrained in their response.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei declined to comment on “America’s domestic affairs,” but said that China is hopeful the election outcome won’t undermine relations between the two superpowers.

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“A sound bilateral relationship serves the fundamental interests of both peoples and contributes to peace, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific and beyond,” Hong said. “We hope that the new U.S. Congress will play a constructive role.”

Though Obama suffered a painful political blow Tuesday, the shift in the balance of power towards Republicans on Capitol Hill could actually give a boost to key aspects of his Asia policy. The centerpiece of his much-vaunted “pivot to Asia” is a drive to reach a trade agreement — the Transpacific Partnership or TPP — that was publicly resisted by outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Most Republicans are fans of the idea, which both Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) highlighted Wednesday as a fruitful area for cooperation.

“Most of his party is unenthusiastic about international trade. We think it’s good for America,” said McConnell, who noted that he had discussed the issue with the president and understood him to be willing to work with him on the issue.

Republicans’ interest in greater military spending could also give more gusto to the pivot policy by allowing the U.S. military more capacity to move ships and personnel to Asia without putting pressure on commitments elsewhere in the world, such as the Middle East.

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And while Obama’s political capital may be somewhat depleted, his economic capital is actually stronger than it has ever been — a consideration that could have major significance considering the trade-focused nature of the summit meetings he is set to attend.

“Regardless of the votes that Democrats got in the midterms, all the numbers suggest that we’ve got the strongest major economy in the world at this point,” said Ken Lieberthal, top China adviser in the Clinton White House. He added that the election’s impact on the president’s credibility is trivial compared to the U.S. government shutdown last year and threats that the U.S. might default on its debt.

Though some Asian officials are likely to be dubious about Obama’s post-midterms stature, experts said sophisticated watchers of the U.S. political scene may actually see Obama as liberated to spend more time focusing on Asia.

“The narrative among a lot of elites, including leaders, is that President Obama has the Asian engagement DNA in his blood. It’s what he wants to do,” Ernest Bower of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said. The hope is “he has been sort of hijacked by domestic politics and the elections in the United States and that now he may be able to turn to Asia for legacy issues.”

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But Bower still described the upcoming tour as “a tough trip for the president.”

He’s arriving in a region where saving face is a top priority, and his bruised status will lead powers across the region, not only in China, to test his mettle.

“When Southeast Asia looks at this trip and him coming, they’re wondering, you know, who is Barack Obama now after the midterm elections?” Bower said. “They’ll be trying to discern whether he has the commitment and political capability, the political capital to follow through on earlier commitments.”

Whatever their ultimate take on Obama’s political clout, Chinese officials have a strong reason not to harp to their domestic audience on the drubbing U.S. Democrats took at the polls: It could call attention to the fact that Chinese citizens don’t get to vote for national leaders like Xi Jinping, who are picked in an opaque process run by the Chinese Communist Party.

At bottom, China’s leaders “don’t like the idea of elections, but they do see it as a measure of one’s power and ability to accomplish things,” Huntsman observed