President Barack Obama pointed a sharp finger during the 2008 campaign at the Chinese government's currency manipulation, pledging to help U.S exporters by using diplomacy to end the practice.

As U.S. job growth sputters, Republicans and Democrats have lambasted the Chinese government for intentionally keeping the value of its currency low to give the country an edge in global trade. Members from both parties are calling on Obama to lead on the issue after the Senate passed legislation in October 2011 designed to pressure China to allow its currency to rise.

But has Obama used enough diplomatic force to keep his campaign promise?

One of the Obama administration's first diplomatic moves was establishing the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, a Treasury Department initiative, which began in 2009 and last met in Washington D.C. in May 2011.

Last September, two top Obama advisers – then-White House National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers and then-Deputy National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon – met with China's President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing to discuss the undervaluing of the yuan and to invite Jintao to Washington for a visit in January 2011.

These kinds of efforts have provided "diplomatic lures" by the Obama administration, said Doug Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, putting the U.S. "on the roadmap to solving the currency problem."

But Obama could be doing more, said C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, like forming a multilateral coalition with other countries who have been hurt by China's export power and appealing to the World Trade Organization to intervene.

China's currency value is, of course, not entirely dependent on U.S. diplomatic efforts, but the yuan has gradually appreciated 4.3 percent over the last year. China also committed to more currency flexibility at the G-20 meeting in Cannes, France in early November 2011.

The yuan's rise in value, however, still is not happening quickly enough to satisfy most in the U.S., including officials at the Treasury Department. In its February 2011 "Report to Congress on International Economic and Exchange Rate Policies," the Treasury Department did not label China a currency manipulator but still concluded, "progress thus far is insufficient and that more rapid progress is needed."

Obama's efforts appear somewhat effective, but he has had to walk a fine diplomatic line with the Chinese, backing away slightly from his bold campaign promise. So we rate this promise Compromise.