HONG KONG - Months after disappearing from public view following her
resignation as governor of Alaska, former Republican vice presidential
candidate Sarah Palin planned to re-emerge as a political force last week with
her highly publicized appearance at a conference of heavy-hitting global
investors held in this city.
The conference, hosted in the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt hotel by the CLSA
brokerage and investment group, was off limits to the media, however, and Palin
slipped in and out of Hong Kong without holding a press conference or staging a
single sideline event. So there were only select witnesses to this eagerly
anticipated second coming. If Palin is now blazing a comeback trail and setting
herself up for a 2012 run at the US presidency, we'll have to take their word
for it.
In her keynote address, Palin reportedly spoke for 90 minutes on
an array of topics - from Sino-US relations to Alaskan moose - before an
audience of 1,100 invited guests and CLSA employees. Previous CLSA forums have
been addressed by, among others, former president Bill Clinton, former chairman
of the US Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, rock star Bono and South Africa's
Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
A CLSA spokesman said the firm decided to bar the media from Palin's speech so
that she would feel "unfettered" in her remarks.
Nevertheless, leaks abounded immediately following her address, which was
clearly a carefully scripted performance that received mixed reviews.
While Western media tended to portray Palin's forum effort in a mostly positive
light, the Hong Kong press was not as polite.
For example, according to CNN, "Those who attended [Palin's] speech said she
did well, though some could be seen exiting early. A few of those people said
they were heading to other forum offerings."
The Associated Press reported that Palin touted the conservative economic
policies of former US president Ronald Reagan and former British prime minister
Margaret Thatcher but mentioned no criticism of her speech by any of the asset
managers and other financial professionals who were there.
A New York Times reporter quoted extensively an African-American marketing
consultant who works in Asia and attended the speech. A supporter of President
Barack Obama, Mel Goode told the The Times that Palin was "articulate and she
held her own. I give her credit. They've tried to categorize her as not being
very bright. She's bright."
Interestingly, Goode was also quoted in a local English-language newspaper, the
South China Morning Post, as saying of Palin, "Well, she delivered well - but
then so does Pizza Hut."
Some in Hong Kong's Chinese-language press were downright dismissive in their
coverage of the visiting American luminary. "Palin Gives Speech in Hong Kong,
Called Boring, Members of the Audience left early" was how a headline in the
popular Ming Pao newspaper summarized Palin's re-emergence on the world stage.
Asia News International, a multimedia news agency based in the Indian capital
of New Delhi, reported widespread criticism of the speech in an article
headlined "Palin's pitch leaves Hong Kong investors unimpressed”.
"Several members of the audience described the speech as 'long, humorless and
George W Bush-like'," ANI said.
ANI also described the walk-out mentioned in the Ming Pao headline, with those
leaving complaining of the partisan political nature of the speech and saying
they had "more important things to do".
Compare this report to headlines like "More moderate Palin speaks in Hong Kong"
(San Francisco Chronicle) and "Palin Takes Her 'Main Street' View to Hong Kong"
(Washington Post) and you see that the twain of East and West, famously
described by the English poet Rudyard Kipling 120 years ago, is still
struggling mightily to meet.
But Palin's poor reviews should come as no surprise, at least from a Chinese
point of view, if leaks from her speech that appear in a Wall Street Journal
blog are correct. The conventional wisdom on Sino-US relations since Mao
Zedong's time has always been that Chinese leaders prefer to deal with
Republicans because they are more practical and less likely to harp on human
rights. Palin could upset this long-held assumption.
"We simply cannot turn a blind eye to Chinese policies that could undermine
international peace and security," she is reported to have said. "Here, China
has some one thousand missiles aimed at Taiwan, though no serious observer
believes it poses a serious threat to Beijing."
Commenting on China's political system and growing military prowess, she added,
"The more politically open and just China is, the more Chinese citizens of
every ethnic group will be able to settle disputes in court rather than on the
streets. The more open it is, the less we'll be concerned about its military
build-up and its intentions."
Finally, in another clear dig at China, Palin called for "an Asia whole and
free - free from domination by any one power".
While remarks like these may go down well with Palin's Main Street Republican
compatriots in the US, they are not well received in Hong Kong, which reverted
from British to Chinese rule 12 years ago.
People here - the ordinary man and woman in the street as well as hot-shot
investors - still remember how Palin was lampooned during last year's
presidential campaign for her ignorance of the world beyond US borders. At one
particularly notorious point in the campaign, she was reduced to citing
Alaska's proximity to Russia as a feather in her foreign-policy cap.
"You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska," said Palin, who did not
obtain a US passport until 2007, when she traveled to Kuwait and Germany to
visit members of the Alaska National Guard serving there.
To now have the same person who made this stunningly naive remark - not to
mention many others - offering her insight on the complexities of Sino-US
relations and international finance is a bit hard for Hong Kong to take.
Then again, this speech was not really about Hong Kong, China or Asia in
general. Palin's appearance here was clearly meant to burnish her presidential
credentials in the US - and also to help defray the more than US$500,000 in
legal fees that she faces as a result of 15 ethics complaints filed against her
during her two and a half years as governor of Alaska.
The welter of ethics charges and mounting legal bills were two of several
reasons Palin cited for her resignation in July. CLSA declined to disclose how
much Palin was paid for her appearance in Hong Kong, but if the rumored
US$300,000 fee is correct, the erstwhile governor's load of debt just got a lot
lighter.
Indeed, soon enough Palin's debts should turn to profit as she has signed on
with the Washington Speakers Bureau, which represents many of the world's most
famous and influential people, and is said to have received over 1,000 offers.
So, like it or not, the world is going to be hearing a lot more from Sarah
Palin.
Kent Ewing is a Hong Kong-based teacher and writer. He can be reached at
kewing@hkis.edu.hk.
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