Hillary Clinton has some advice for the next secretary of state on
negotiating with Chinese leaders: “You have to be yourself, you have to be
America, you have to stand up for American values, interests and security.”
In an interview with Bloomberg
Radio after her sixth -- and probably last -- visit to China as the top U.S.
diplomat, Clinton reflected on the lessons of 3 1/2 years trying to resolve
issues with a rising power that is the world’s second- largest economy. Along
with growing investments and influence around world, China has a key vote on
the most important crises before the United Nations Security Council.
Clinton, who has indicated she
will step down within months regardless of whether President Barack Obama wins
re-election, was in Beijing last week trying to persuade Chinese leaders to
adopt a code of conduct to resolve territorial disputes that have sparked
skirmishes with its neighbors in the South China Sea. She also wanted China to
support the West in backing tougher action against President Bashar al-Assad in
Syria.
Her meetings with almost every
top Chinese leader or leader-in-waiting were both friendly and frank, by all
accounts, though neither issue was resolved.
At a joint press conference on
Sept. 5, Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said they remained
divided over how to address the maritime claims and the violence in Syria. At
the same time, each took pains to highlight U.S.-China unity on other issues,
including economic recovery measures and diplomacy to avert nuclear threats
from Iran and North Korea.
‘Common Ground’
“You have to look for ways to
deepen understanding and find common ground wherever that’s possible, to work
on enhancing the level of cooperation,” Clinton said in the interview yesterday
as she capped an 11-day, six-nation Asia- Pacific tour in Vladivostok, Russia.
At the same time, she said, it’s essential “to stand up for what we believe in.
We’ve come a long way doing that” in U.S. foreign policy over the years.
Clinton went to Beijing in
February 2009 on her first trip as secretary of state. Since then, she’s
returned three times, twice for annual talks known as the Strategic and
Economic Dialogue, which she elevated in importance and broadened in scope
during her first year in office.
She’s also made separate trips to
China’s Hainan Island, as well as the city of Shenzhen and the Chinese
territory of Hong Kong. She’s met with Chinese leaders numerous times in
Washington and the UN, and at Asian summits and Group of 20 meetings.
Three months ago, Clinton’s visit
to Beijing for the annual strategic and economic talks were almost derailed by
a crisis over a blind Chinese dissident who was injured while escaping house
arrest and persecution by authorities and was taken in by the U.S. embassy -- a
risky decision that Clinton said she signed off on.
Chen Case
Over three days of U.S. talks
with the Chinese about everything from currency and trade barriers to adopting
clean cook-stoves and deterring the North Korean threat, Clinton’s deputies
negotiated a deal for the blind activist, Chen Guangcheng, to be permitted to
get medical treatment, leave his village and study law in China.
Once in a Beijing hospital, Chen
changed his mind, saying he would feel safe only if he and his family could go
to the United States. Clinton’s team went back to the Chinese leaders to make a
pitch for a new deal.
At first, the Chinese refused,
saying they had already accommodated the U.S. more than they needed to over a
man who was a Chinese citizen. When Clinton met State Councilor Dai Bingguo,
she said, as she always does, that human rights and personal freedoms are
fundamental American values, according to U.S. officials who spoke at the time
on condition of anonymity to describe the private talks. She urged him to not
let the Chen case obscure Sino-U.S. cooperation on so many other issues.
Recognizing Differences
The Chinese relented shortly
before the two sides were closing the annual talks and agreeing to a joint
statement on economic and security cooperation. A human-rights crisis that
might have ended in disaster became a victory for Clinton.
During last week’s trip, Clinton
repeated, as she often has, that the two sides “do not see eye to eye on everything,”
saying that was natural in any relationship, especially between “two countries
as large and diverse” as China and the U.S.
Echoing Clinton’s words, Yang
also said the two do “not see eye to eye” on everything. It’s “inevitable there
would be disputes or frictions” between the two, he told reporters, yet there
was even more cooperation and “mutual respect.”
Balancing Act
In yesterday’s interview, Clinton
said she’s found that balancing act is “true with any country. We don’t agree
on everything with anybody,” she said, citing a dispute over lobsters with
Canada, one of the U.S.’s closest allies.
Asked what advice she would offer
her successor on China, she said the key is “balancing as you say friendliness
and firmness, but that’s true with everybody.” The China relationship is simply
under the microscope, “more front-and- center because of the growing importance
of the role that China is playing economically and politically,” she said.
Clinton has said many times that
the U.S. needs cooperation from the world’s most populous nation to solve many
global challenges, from pressing Iran and North Korea to abandon their nuclear
programs to agreeing on trade rules and capping greenhouse-gas emissions.
In an interview after her
previous trip to China, when the Chen case dominated U.S. headlines, Clinton
called the relationship between the two sides “unprecedented in world history.
We’re trying to find a way for an established power and a rising power to
coexist.”
Clinton Legacy
Yesterday, Clinton made clear she
sees promoting a stable relationship with China as part of her legacy.
“Everything we’ve done has been
to construct a framework of cooperation” with China that ensures “our presence
and our position now and into the future,” she said. “I think you know we’ve
put the relationship on a firm foundation.”
The U.S. has hit “some choppy
waters” with China in the last few years and gotten through them without
abandoning U.S. values or silencing concerns, she said. “I think that’s the
sign of a maturing relationship.”
It’s not just about China, she
said. The larger Asia- Pacific region -- home to 3 billion people and 56
percent of global economic output -- was the sole destination of her first trip
as secretary, and has been a focus of her attention ever since.
In her first three years, Clinton
made twice as many visits to the Asia-Pacific region as did her predecessor,
Condoleezza Rice -- 36 compared with 18, according to State Department records.
Many of those were to attend regional leaders’ meetings on security and
development.
‘Funny Skit’
In the past, Clinton said, U.S.
involvement in the region was superficial at best: “We’d show up once a year,
go to some dinner, do a funny skit, show up again a year later.”
“I don’t think that’s adequate
for the importance of this region and our role in it,” she said.
Clinton ended her trip yesterday
at the 21-member Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit, where she
stood in for Obama, who was attending the Democratic Convention in Charlotte,
North Carolina.
Indira A.R. Lakshmanan
Business & Investment Opportunities
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