The List: What McCain and Obama Didn’t Talk About

The issue: Between the crackdown on protesters in Tibet, the Sichuan earthquake, and the buildup to the Summer Olympics, China dominated the world’s headlines for much of 2008. A veritable cottage industry emerged of pundits forecasting the United States’ decline and China’s emergence as an economic and military superpower. Yet the country that is home to 20 percent of the world’s population, that owns 20 percent of U.S. foreign debt, that has the world’s largest army, and that is America’s largest trading partner was strangely absent from this presidential election. Tellingly, during the only presidential debate focused on foreign policy, not one question on China was asked.


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