The many top American leaders who are travelling through China this week have made it clear that they will hold their peace rather than confront Beijing on Tiananmen.

The powerful speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi has for long been a big critic of China’s human rights record.

During a 1991 visit to Beijing, Pelosi had unfurled a banner that read “To those who died for democracy in China” on Tiananmen Square.

Pelosi is not the only one who will bite her tongue this week. So will the Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry. For twenty years, the Democrats in the United States were at the forefront of the criticism of China’s political system.

Their silence today is an eloquent testimony to the changed balance of power between Washington and Beijing. If America was full of fire and brimstone twenty years ago, the current global financial crisis has revealed how deeply America is constrained from criticising China.

It is no surprise that the US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, also in Beijing this week, wants to please his hosts. After initially accusing China of manipulating its currency, Geithner beat a quick retreat as he understood Beijing’s expansive role in helping America get out of its current financial trouble.

In his first visit to China this week, Geithner is eager to reassure the Chinese leaders that their massive investments in American paper are safe. Geithner also teased the Chinese with an offer to give Beijing a larger role in the management of global economy.

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