The State of the Union in the Global Times

Global Times
January 29, 2010

US President Barack Obama gave his State of the Union Address Wednesday night in Washington, DC, too late to be covered in Chinese newspapers on Thursday.

Today, the Global Times ran its report on the address on the front page under a headline that put Obama’s references to China in the context of a domestic-targeted speech:

Obama urges America not to settle for second place

First State of the Union Address focuses on employment; namechecks China and India to push for national unity

The article quoted the two places China was mentioned in the speech. The first appeared in a section discussing high-speed railways and other advanced infrastructure:

There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products.

The second:

You see, Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse. Meanwhile, China is not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany is not waiting. India is not waiting. These nations — they’re not standing still. These nations aren’t playing for second place. They’re putting more emphasis on math and science. They’re rebuilding their infrastructure. They’re making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs. Well, I do not accept second place for the United States of America.

The remainder of the article was devoted to summarizing the international reaction to the speech and recapping recent polls showing the American public dissatisfied with the direction the country is headed.

The Global Times‘ Chinese-language website is running its own poll asking readers “Do you believe that China is headed in the right direction?” Currently, 76.9% of respondents (or 1,496 votes) have answered in the affirmative.