Further evidence of the coming China storm

I posted earlier on the blog (see: “Larry Summers get real” post) that I felt it was likely that Obama would focus on foreign policy in the next 15 months in the run up to the Iowa caucuses.  Specifically I said that he would likely focus on China.  This is because so many Americans, left and right, are in alignment in not having a positive view of that nation.  The left hates China’s human rights record.  Unions, typically left, hate China’s very cheap skilled labor.  The right hates China’s artificially low currency.  So there are likely to be White House rumblings that, if they play well with the public, will turn into outright condemnation.

The rumblings began last spring when the Obama Administration started publicly and frequently criticizing Chinese currency policy.  Then earlier this week came Larry Summers publicly stating that China was the biggest problem for the U.S. economy.  Now today we have a minor story, but one that is interesting in context.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has issued a report about a moment last April when massive amounts of Internet traffic was suddenly re-routed to Chinese servers.  Never heard of this commission?  Me either.  Never heard of this incident?  Me either.  So why is this story making news now?

Maybe, just maybe, the reporters who are following this story received indications from the Obama Administration that it was worth their while to cover this commission’s report.  Typically this sort of thing would not be public news.  Instead, it would be a white paper that would be spoken about at industry or academic conferences.  So that this story is getting even a limited amount of press play is interesting.  It makes me think: what kind of groundwork is being laid?

Jason