Obama’s trip to China, always bound to be the most challenging of his Far East jaunt, has shown up the limitations of the 44th president far more than anything the American right wing have managed to cook up since last November.

Any head of state visiting Beijing would face the same censorship – things like press conferences where no questions are permitted – but these events hold extra resonance with Obama because of the hope that he has embodied since he chose to run for President in early 2007. That he spent the earlier part of the tour calling for Burma/Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi places the current silent concessions to China in an even more unfavourable light.

Hu Jintao and China get to bask in the reflected glory of the most popular world leader of modern times. Obama, meanwhile, must know that his pleas for things like increased internet freedom aren’t ever going to be heeded. The Chinese establishment smiles and nods when he talks about Tibet and renewed dialogue with The Dalai-Lama. To be a fly on the wall when, behind closed doors, they say the Chinese equivalent of, ‘that brother’s crazy!’
It doesn’t help that the US effectively owes China just under a trillion dollars following the global recession. Add to that the cash they owe Saudi Arabia, and a lot of rich and powerful regimes not overly bothered with human rights are gaining disproportionate influence in the land of the free.

It is similarly significant that President Obama has to delay the closure of Guantanamo Bay. Not only because he signed the order to close the prison during the excitement that followed his inauguration, but also because it shows him falling victim to the same problems his predecessor faced and perhaps not seeing them coming. Just what are they going to do with all these enemy combatants? Though, to be fair, his predecessor was the one who opened the camp in the first place. It’s one of the worst of the many problems he inherited from Dubya. Bush only had to deal with the global financial crisis for about five minutes before heading out to Dallas to write his memoirs. Gitmo caused ‘no.43’ repeated hassle, especially during his second term.

It’s been obvious for ages that President Obama was going to face many unknowns in closing the closest thing we have in the modern world to a concentration camp ( if you don’t count the CIA ‘death camps’ and extraordinary rendition.) The admission is still a turning point. It could be he’s going to wait and see what happens with the New York trials of the 9/11 conspirators, and then see if he can do the same with some of the prisoners whose situation allows them to be tried in US Courts. That, however, will prove to be a long wait. One that could see Guantanamo Bay still open in January 2011. And what about those enemy combatants that can’t be tried on US soil?