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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, February 16, 2002

Bush's trip to Asia a diplomatic challenge

President Bush leaves today for a long-delayed trip to Japan, South Korea and China. He'll definitely have his work cut out for him.

All three countries have problems, chiefly economic, on which Bush could be helpful, but unfortunately he'll spend a lot more time than he'd like explaining some of the things he's been saying lately in public.

The worst problem will come in Seoul, where Bush's inclusion of North Korea in the "axis of evil" has caused serious political problems. As in pre-9/11 days, it appears to South Koreans that Bush is unilaterally taking off on tangents without consulting his allies.

In Tokyo, it would be helpful if Bush could help shore up the popularity of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his long-overdue fiscal reforms, but he'll find himself having to spend too much time trying to explain his toothless American alternative to the Kyoto global warming accords instead.

The Chinese visit is the shortest, because bilateral relations are still recuperating from last year's EP-3 incident. Yet it should be the easiest: All he has to explain in Beijing is how China shouldn't fear the missile defense system Bush is insisting on.

Make no mistake: If Bush makes a genuine success of this trip, he'll have pulled off a neat trick.