It is easy to get the impression that Obama tries to bully the friends of the west while going soft on the enemies of the west. One example: his treatment of Benyamin Netanyahu during Netanyahu's visit to the US. And here is another from Roubini Global Economics reporting on attempts by the Obama administration to persuade China to let its currency appreciate:
[B]y late 2009, China's aggressive policy actions [fiscal and monetary stimuli] had led to a rapid resumption of economic and export growth and rising inflationary pressures that could have been contained in part via currency appreciation. Thus, one would have expected China to start—or at least start signaling—the resumption of slow appreciation of the RMB. Instead, when Barack Obama went to China late last year he was effectively told to take a hike on the currency issue. He was ridiculed by the Chinese for the U.S. fiscal and current account deficits, as well as the accumulation of public and foreign debt.
Does the Obama administration really think that branding China as a currency manipulator is going to have much impact on its policies?