AT THE “Singapore Summit”, a gathering of Asia’s great and good held back in September, a speaker asked the audience of several hundred for a show of hands by those who thought Mitt Romney would win the American presidency. If a solitary palm reached for the sky, Banyan missed it. The almost unanimous expectation of Barack Obama’s re-election in part reflected the opinion polls at the time. But there was perhaps also an element of wishful thinking. If it had a vote in this election, much of Asia, though dissatisfied with many American policies of the past four years, would, like The Economist, have plumped for the devil they knew. Ravi Velloor, foreign editor of the Straits Times in Singapore, summed up what is probably a common view in South-East Asia and the broader region in a front-page article finding “reason to cheer“ Mr Obama’s win. He expressed relief that “the world’s most powerful nation did not land in the hands of a novice at a time when Asia needs a seasoned hand at America’s wheel.” That view was probably shared in China. Traditionally, if perversely, Chinese leaders have found Republican administrations easier to deal with, even if, like Democrats, Republicans tend to make fire-breathing threats towards China during election campaigns. And much in Mr Obama’s first term has alarmed China. He has called China an “adversary” as well as a potential partner, and many Chinese see his “pivot” of America’s military strategy towards Asia as a long-term plot to contain China’s rise. However, Mr Romney’s commitment to designate China a “currency manipulator” on day one of his presidency may have proved hollow. But it would have meant, at the very least, that China would become an issue from day one. And Mr Romney would certainly not have wanted to appear softer in military strategy than Mr Obama. In the Chinese social media, the American election was the big issue on November 7th. The coincidence of its falling on the eve of the opening of the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th congress gave posters on Twitter-like services an obvious topic of conversation. One post, translated by the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong, asked plaintively: “So when will we, in our Great Mother Country, be able to elect our own leaders?”

But another website, ChinaSMACK, translated a post that reflected a very common cynicism about the process: “Win or not has nothing to do with China; they will all be against China, containing our development.”

In Asia’s second-largest economy, Japan, there was probably also some relief at Mr Obama’s victory. At a time of great tension with China over the disputed Senkaku (Diaoyu) islands, “the security environment in East Asia is severe,” according to Osamu Fujimura, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, so the alliance with America is even more important. Japan will welcome continuity.

India was one of the few countries in Asia where Mr Obama was rather unpopular in the early days of his administration. Loose talk of a “G2” with China made India feel undervalued; a brief attempt to push it to negotiate with Pakistan over the future of Kashmir was resented. However, in Indian eyes, Mr Obama has come a long way—especially in reaching a better understanding of the shortcomings of India’s rivals, China and Pakistan. A well-placed commentator thinks India will be happy with the prospect of “business as usual”.

Correspondingly, the one place where Mr Obama’s victory seems broadly unpopular is in Pakistan. Pakistanis are angry at his stepping up of unmanned “drone” raids on Pakistani territory. They have been further antagonised by bloody mishaps involving American troops and CIA contractors. And the episode which appeared such a triumph at home—the raid that killed Osama bin Laden at his comfy Pakistani hide-out—was seen as an outrageous breach of Pakistani sovereignty. So in a poll on the election conducted last month by the BBC in 21 countries, there was only one where Mr Romney was the more popular candidate: Pakistan. Of course, 20 out of 21 is a good score. But Pakistan, the source of Mr Obama’s “biggest single national-security concern”, is a bad loss.

(Picture credit: AFP)