American Ex-pats in Beijing Eye Obama’s Visit
US President Barack Obama’s visit to Beijing is capturing the attention of Chinese in the capital city as well as American ex-pats. At Tim’s Texas BBQ restaurant in Beijing, grilled ribs, beer and live coverage of the visit are on the menu for the thousands of Americans in the city. Chet Scheltema, a property director, said Obama’s popularity may ease the bilateral strains caused by economic imbalances, trade disputes and human rights controversies. [Chet Scheltema, American Ex-pat]: “I have noticed that Obama seems to have piqued Chinese interest. There are, there is a certain group of Chinese, a certain percentage of Chinese and Obama has really, sort of, grabbed their attention, so I think that is nice. What that means or how significant that is, I don’t know, if it just a matter of, sort of, rock star status I am not sure but it is there.” Bar owner Chad Lager said it wasn’t human rights that his friends and colleagues were interested in, but China’s huge US government debt holdings. [Chad Lager, American Ex-pat]: “You are hearing a lot about the recession now, so I’ll get a lot of that, so they want to talk about the recession more than they do Obama and talk about the bonds they own and how they’re helping out America.” Connecticut-born Bryan McMahon is doing his bit to bridge the East-West divide – he’s learning Chinese medicine, and hopes to one day open a clinic in the US [Bryan McMahon, Acupuncturist]: “It’s a process of having an open mind and also a healthy …
Video Rating: 3 / 5