Barack Obama's China plan looks like George W. Bush's

POLITICO - By VICTORIA MCGRANE 6/1/09

He leveled tough words at China during the campaign. But as president, Barack Obama is hewing close to the playbook drafted by his predecessor when it comes to economic engagement with the Asian giant.
In April, Obama’s Treasury Department declined to name China a “currency manipulator,” using arguments similar to those advanced previously by the Bush administration.
In May, he named pro-business Republican — Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman — as his ambassador to China.
And Monday, Obama’s Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, begins two days of talks in China to lay the groundwork for the “U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue” — a revamped version of the “strategic economic dialogue” pioneered by George W. Bush’s Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
“There’s more continuity than discontinuity,” says Nicholas Lardy, a China expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. (read more...)