Obama Admin. Broke Own Red Line and Alienated China
So why isn’t China on board?
After China went Communist in the late 1940s, conservatives liked to ask “who lost China?”
That same question occurred to me on Tuesday, when China made it clear that it’s not likely to sign or ratify the controversial Arms Trade Treaty any time soon.
The answer to the question this time seems to be President Obama.
The Arms Trade Treaty regulates the international trade in conventional weapons. Seventy-two countries have ratified the treaty, while 59 have signed but not ratified. I’m in Cancun, watching the first meeting of all those nations.
The U.S. is here as a signatory of the treaty; China’s attending as an observer.
China has a distinct style in multilateral meetings such as this – smooth, seemingly cooperative, and yet quietly menacing.
The treaty’s proponents had hoped that China was on the verge of signing the treaty. But this week, China made clear that they’re not going to accede to it any time soon.
So why isn’t China on board?
Well, only they know for sure. But China takes its place in international organizations, and their formal rules, very seriously.
It doesn’t want to participate in anything that could commit China by majority rule. It takes its sovereignty very seriously too.
When the negotiations for the Arms Trade Treaty began, the Obama administration promised that they’d be conducted by consensus. In the U.N., that means that no one objects.
But when the negotiations couldn’t reach a consensus agreement, the U.S. supported jumping to the U.N. General Assembly, which adopted the treaty by majority rule.
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