Self-glorification in State of Union address ignored US' problems

In his last State of the Union address on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama talked about the need to fix domestic politics, but he could not forgo playing politics in a bid to push the US Congress to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

With strong opposition to the TPP from most of his fellow Democrat lawmakers, Obama seems to believe that fear-mongering about China is a good way to sell the trade agreement reached last Oct 5 by 12 Pacific Rim nations. He did not say, however, that China is actually the largest trading partner for many of these 12 nations.

Obama claimed that "with TPP, China doesn't set the rules in that region, we do". He seems to believe that China, the world's largest trading nation and second-largest economy, should not be included or have a say in making regional and global trade rules.