Published: October 28, 2010
Related
China Is Said to Resume Shipping Rare Earth Minerals (October 29, 2010)
HONOLULU — Opening a seven-country tour of Asia shadowed by fears about China’s rising influence, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared here on Thursday that the United States was not bent on containing China, even if its relationship with Beijing was complicated.
“There are some in both countries who believe that China’s interests and ours are fundamentally at odds,” she said in closely watched address. “But that is not our view. In the 21st century, it is not in anyone’s interest for the United States and China to see each other as adversaries.”
Mixing conciliatory words with hints of a firmer American stance, Mrs. Clinton said China must be a partner of the United States on issues ranging from climate change to North Korea’s nuclear program.
She called on Beijing to make “responsible policy adjustments” on its artificially depressed exchange rate — an issue that has deepened tensions between the United States and China in recent weeks because the undervalued Chinese currency has hurt American exports.
Mrs. Clinton’s remarks came as China apparently lifted an unannounced halt on shipments of strategicallyimportant rare-earth minerals to the United States, Japan, and other countries. Officials traveling with Mrs. Clinton said they were seeking clarification from the Chinese government about its policy.
Mrs. Clinton made no mention of the rare-earth minerals dispute in her speech. But a day earlier, after a meeting with Japan’s foreign minister, Seiji Maehara, she said that the United States, Japan, and other countries would need to find alternative sources of supply for these elements.
In her speech, Mrs. Clinton sought to project a more aggressive American role in Asia, labeling it “forward-deployed diplomacy.” The policy, she said, means reinvigorating Cold War alliances with Japan and South Korea and seeking bigger American influence in regional security groups.
Alluding to disputes between China and its neighbors over islands in the South China Sea, Mrs. Clinton said she was encouraged that China showed signs of cooperating more with these groups.
Mrs. Clinton noted that Asia was the only place where three Nobel laureates — Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma; the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident who recently won the peace prize — “are either under house arrest, in prison or in exile.”
In recent months, the United States has sought to assemble coalitions of countries to pressure China on issues like currency, trade, and Beijing’s maritime ambitions in its coastal waters. Mrs. Clinton insisted this did not amount to containment, despite what she said were the suspicions of many in China.
“I would simply point out that since the beginning of diplomatic relations between our two countries, China has experienced breathtaking growth and development,” she said. “This is primarily due, of course, to the hard work of the Chinese people,” she added. “But U.S. policy has consistently, through Republican and Democratic administrations and Congresses, supported this goal since the 1970’s.”
The day before Mrs. Clinton left for Asia, the State Department hastily added a China stop to her itinerary, reflecting its sensitivities about Beijing. She will stop for two hours on Hainan, a resort island east of Vietnam to meet with China’s state councilor for foreign policy, Dai Bingguo.
The symbolism of Hainan is awkward: in 2001, an American spy plane was forced to land there after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet. China detained the plane’s 24 crew members, amid a war of words between both sides, and released them only after the United States agreed to apologize.
Mrs. Clinton said she and Mr. Dai would discuss the preparations for a visit to the United States by President Hu Jintao next year. Mr. Dai is also a key Chinese contact for Mrs. Clinton on North Korea.
“We have a long list of issues to discuss,” she said, though she noted that if the Chinese government offered reassurances on shipments of rare-earth minerals, it would “shorten that discussion.”
If anything, Japan has had an even more turbulent time with China than the United States. The two traded harsh words after a Chinese fishing vessel collided with two Japanese patrol boats near the disputed Senkaku islands, and Japanese authorities detained the Chinese skipper.
Mr. Maehara said he was encouraged that Mrs. Clinton reaffirmed that the islands fell under the scope of the U.S.-Japan Mutual Security Treaty, which guarantees the United States will come to the defense of any Japanese territory under attack.
Since it released the China captain, Japan has been eager to lower the temperature with Beijing. “Japan and China are neighbors,” Mr. Maehara said, ‘Neither of the neighbors can move elsewhere.”
For her part, Mrs. Clinton avoided criticizing Chinese behavior, preferring to celebrate the alliance between the United States and Japan. “The security environment is always evolving,” she said. “The security environment of 2010 is not the security environment of 1960.”
A version of this article appeared in print on October 29, 2010, on page A9 of the New York edition.
No comments:
Post a Comment