Pride restored, it's time to heal our friendships
American MBA student Michael Frechette says Barack Obama's election win will win the USA back some of the credibility that has been eroding away for the past eight years.
Frechette, who is doing a master's degree at Tsinghua University, has lived in Beijing for more than five years, is married to a Chinese and plans to stay here after graduating.
"Since I've lived outside of the US for so long, I tend to be more sensitive to international issues," he says.
"And over the years I've had to deal with my share of interrogation tactics and loaded questions from inquisitive non-Americans looking to give a Yank a piece of their mind about our foreign policy.
"I've learned to live with it, mostly by learning to avoid it."
Frechette, who grew up in the state of Connecticut and has worked overseas for about seven years, says he grew up in a family that encouraged political discussion.
"In my family it was not taboo to talk about your voting choice," he says. "So, I'm fine with telling you that I voted for Obama.
"To me, the fact he is black did not play a role in my choice to vote for him, but the fact he won means that my country was able to look beyond racial lines, and for that I am proud."
Frechette says Americans at home are friendly people. "But there is such little tangible evidence of that in the far-off places where I live. Obama's win might make people feel that Americans are not so out of touch after all."
He says the international community's excitement over Obama's win may change when reality sets in.
"He has been talking about more restrictive trade agreements and taking steps to stimulate small businesses in the USA," he says.
"As for relations with China, I expect Obama will be more pragmatic than protectionist and we'll probably see a much better tone to the communication coming out of Washington in the future. That alone will go a long way to rebuilding our relationships with other countries."
(China Daily 11/10/2008 page7)
