Obama's speech a show of US hypocrisy

It's that time of year again, time for the State of the Union, the annual speech where the president of the United States proclaims the state of the union and outlines legislative priorities.

But did current US President Barak Obama really prioritise and then address one of the key issues facing the US, the troubled global economy? He did not.

President Obama kept us all waiting for any mention of the world economy and did not even refer to the Asia-Pacific region, the world's engine of growth, until about half way into his speech, when he said: "Today, our businesses export more than ever, and exporters tend to pay their workers higher wages. But as we speak, China wants to write the rules for the world's fastest-growing region. That would put our workers and businesses at a disadvantage. ... We should write those rules."

Obama claimed the US is "modernizing alliances" across the Asia-Pacific region. But gave no specific mention of any particular "alliance" and no explanation of what he meant by "modernizing". If the Americans are to be believed and are true to their supposed core values of "peace" and "stability" then surely some detailed discussion is required on the way forward towards an effective Sino-US economic relationship.

At the most recent APEC meeting in Beijing in November, 2014, the Chinese government proposed an ambitious but perfectly attainable vision for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific across the entire Asia-Pacific region. Surely the State of the Union speech is the perfect opportunity for the US to support such a modernizing and stabilizing initiative? In so doing Obama could also have effectively drawn a line under the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which has always sought to undermine real economic integration in this most important region and quite simply aims to preserve and enhance any lingering US regional dominance.

Shortly before Obama's briefest of the brief Asia-Pacific commentary he had the audacity to declare that "we (the US) are demonstrating the power of American strength and diplomacy. We're upholding the principle that bigger nations can't bully the small..." This was breathtakingly hypocritical.

Once again it is to China that attention should be paid for genuine diplomacy and international engagement aimed at strengthening the world economy. Sadly, it is to the US where one need look no further for a culture of bullying and belligerence towards other, often smaller and weaker, nations.

A prime example recently can be found with the launch late last year of the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

On Oct 24, 2014, a signing ceremony, held in Beijing, formally recognized the establishment of the bank with an impressive total of 21 countries signing the bill. Such a lengthy list of willing signatories and participants is proof enough of the positive economic impact of this Chinese initiative.

However, not only did the US not participate in the signing ceremony, Obama's administration openly criticized the initiative and applied significant pressure on Australia and South Korea so they did not sign up as founding AIIB members.

Obama, US bully boy, however, rose to the highest hypocritical heights during this Sate of the Union speech when commenting "As Americans, we respect human dignity ... which is why I've prohibited torture..."

What Obama failed to mention is the determined and lengthy rearguard action that he is leading against the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture which exposed unequivocally widespread abuse of human rights and human dignity. As part of this action Obama has also, quite incredibly, blocked any prosecution of the torturers.

Then Obama rounded off his speech with rousing rhetoric on American values such as "justice" and "freedom". The president's speech only put Uncle Sam's hypocrisy into the spotlight again.

The author is a visiting professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and a senior lecturer on marketing at Southampton Solent University's School of Business.