The International Fallout - NYTimes.com The Republican-induced government shutdown and the party's threats to create another crisis next week over the debt ceiling are causing harm internationally as well as at home. They are undermining American leadership in Asia, impeding the functioning of the national security machinery, upsetting global markets and raising questions about the political dysfunction of a country that has long been the world's democratic standard-bearer. The biggest foreign policy casualty, so far, may be the cancellation last week of President Obama's trip to Asia, which the president's press secretary said was necessary so he could deal with the shutdown and the political stalemate in Congress. Even though he sent Secretary of State John Kerry in his place, this was the third time that Mr. Obama had canceled or postponed a trip to Asia, further hampering his efforts to make the region a centerpiece of his foreign policy. In Mr. Obama's absence, China was able to grab the spotlight. China's leader, Xi Jinping, who became the first foreigner to address the Indonesian Parliament, offered billions of dollars in trade to that country. Mr. Xi then visited Malaysia (another stop President Obama had planned) and announced a "comprehensive strategic partnership," including an upgrade in military ties. Mr. Obama should reschedule his trip as soon as he comfortably can. The fiscal chaos has also given China, America's largest creditor, an opportunity to scold the United States. On Monday, in the Chinese government's first public response to the stalemate in Washington, Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao urged the United States to "earnestly take steps" to avoid a debt default to ensure the safety of Chinese investments and the global economic recovery. Other financial leaders also felt compelled to speak out, including South Africa's finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, who warned that the global community has much to fear. "This is clearly an issue that might go to the brink," he told Reuters. On Monday, most global markets were lower, and the price of oil dropped as traders became increasingly anxious about the standoff in Washington, particularly over the debt ceiling. The shutdown of the American government is being felt in other ways as well. A round of negotiations between the United States and Europe on the world's largest free-trade deal, set for next week in Brussels, was canceled because the United States trade representative, Michael Froman, said he lacked the staffing and the finances to make the trip. And while Republicans accused the Obama administration of being ill prepared for the 2012 attack in Libya that killed four Americans, including the ambassador, the shutdown they have imposed has halted vital training for State Department security officers and improvements to American embassies. The director of national intelligence, James Clapper Jr., told a Senate committee that furloughing 70 percent of the intelligence agencies" civilian employees was "extremely damaging" to intelligence-gathering efforts. And, at a time when the United States is about to begin a critical round of negotiations with Iran on the nuclear program, Wendy Sherman, an undersecretary of state, has said that the shutdown has "totally depleted" the government's ability to enforce sanctions against Iran. The shutdown is taking a toll that looks even more self-defeating when the consequences beyond America's shores are taken into account.