David Rothkopf: As We Say in Chinese, "Why is This State Dinner Unlike Any Other?"
[David Rothkopf is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and President and CEO of Garten Rothkopf.]
The agenda for the state visit was dominated by trade and economic issues. The world was recovering from a recent global economic crash. There was a certain tension because the visitor had strong autocratic tendencies and according to some, imperial ambitions. He had also regularly made statements that could be interpreted as hostile to U.S. and Western influences in his country. The U.S. president, who had once enjoyed enormous popularity, was mired in the difficulties of working with a fractious Congress and poisonous political divides across the country. His main job was nation building at home but he increasingly found he had to take time to address international concerns. In the end, the best outcome the visit could produce was some limited progress on trade deals, allowing the visitor more access to a U.S. market that was vital to his country's growth.
While it sounds familiar, that is the story of the first visit of a foreign head of state to the United States. It took place in 1874. The visitor was King David Kalakaua of Hawaii. The U.S. president was Ulysses S. Grant. The signing of the trade deal -- which focused primarily on agricultural commodities -- was considered a big triumph back home in Hawaii although ultimately the king was better known for his energetic world travels, for the decline in the power of the Hawaiian monarchy that took place during his reign, that he was Hawaii's last king and for the fact that during his reign he oversaw the revivals of hula dancing and surfing.
Thus the echoes with the visit of China's president Hu Jintao to the United States this week are only distant ones. Nonetheless, there is something in this visit that compels a look backward to that first state visit of a foreign leader to Washington. Because this is the first time in the comparatively short history of such visits that any visiting leader has been seen by a substantial number of Americans as representing a rising power that might soon eclipse the United States....
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The agenda for the state visit was dominated by trade and economic issues. The world was recovering from a recent global economic crash. There was a certain tension because the visitor had strong autocratic tendencies and according to some, imperial ambitions. He had also regularly made statements that could be interpreted as hostile to U.S. and Western influences in his country. The U.S. president, who had once enjoyed enormous popularity, was mired in the difficulties of working with a fractious Congress and poisonous political divides across the country. His main job was nation building at home but he increasingly found he had to take time to address international concerns. In the end, the best outcome the visit could produce was some limited progress on trade deals, allowing the visitor more access to a U.S. market that was vital to his country's growth.
While it sounds familiar, that is the story of the first visit of a foreign head of state to the United States. It took place in 1874. The visitor was King David Kalakaua of Hawaii. The U.S. president was Ulysses S. Grant. The signing of the trade deal -- which focused primarily on agricultural commodities -- was considered a big triumph back home in Hawaii although ultimately the king was better known for his energetic world travels, for the decline in the power of the Hawaiian monarchy that took place during his reign, that he was Hawaii's last king and for the fact that during his reign he oversaw the revivals of hula dancing and surfing.
Thus the echoes with the visit of China's president Hu Jintao to the United States this week are only distant ones. Nonetheless, there is something in this visit that compels a look backward to that first state visit of a foreign leader to Washington. Because this is the first time in the comparatively short history of such visits that any visiting leader has been seen by a substantial number of Americans as representing a rising power that might soon eclipse the United States....