The Test of Summit Success

Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart will spend “quality time” together over the next two days.  The U.S. president’s handlers are calling the event the “shirtsleeve summit” to underscore the informal and unstructured nature of the two-day meeting.

Team Obama clearly hopes that by focusing on such atmospherics, the two men will be seen as getting along and succeeding at summitry.  So, while the U.S. president is supposed to talk about unpleasant subjects – like China’s comprehensive and ongoing cyberwarfare against this country – it seems unlikely he will risk offending his guest by demanding an end to it.

Whether Mr. Obama does so, and expressly repudiates other Chinese belligerence – including its declared ownership of most of the South China Sea – will be the real measure of the shirtsleeve summit, not the smiling photo-ops.