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In China, Clinton Says Human Rights 'Can't Interfere' With Talks
Human rights violations by China cannot block the possibility of significant cooperation between Washington and Beijing on the global economic crisis, climate change and security threats such as North Korea's nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday. "We pretty much know what they are going to say" on human rights issues such as greater freedoms for Tibet, Clinton told reporters traveling with her on a tour of Asia. "We have to continue to press them. But our pressing on those issues can't interfere" with dialogue on other crucial topics. Clinton's remarks are likely to dismay human rights organizations that have urged her to move human rights near the top of the U.S.-China agenda. Last week, seven prominent groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, wrote Clinton a joint letter calling for her to tell Chinese officials that China's relationship with the United States "will depend in part on whether it lives by universally accepted human rights norms." The letter noted that in recent years "human rights concerns have been pushed progressively further to the margins of the US-China relationship" as Beijing has gained economic, military and diplomatic power. Clinton suggested she was simply being realistic about China's stance on human rights, noting that the Chinese halted the broadcast of a tough speech she gave on women's rights in Beijing 13 years ago, when she was first lady. "Successive administrations and Chinese governments have been poised back and forth on these issues . . . I have had those conversations for more than a decade with Chinese leaders," Clinton said. She said she did not mean to imply "a lesser concern" for human rights but will spend more time talking about areas where she senses a breakthrough, possibly including "the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis. We have to have a dialogue that leads to an understanding and cooperation on those" issues." The Obama administration has high hopes of winning China's cooperation on reducing harmful greenhouse gases, in part through public-private partnerships. Clinton, who is ending her week-long trip with two days in the Chinese capital, is scheduled to visit a thermal power plant Saturday that was developed with General Electric technology. Accompanying her on the trip is Todd Stern, the administration's special envoy for climate change. Administration officials want to press China to uses its close ties with North Korea to prod the reclusive nation to return to talks on its nuclear program and refrain from testing a long-range missile. On the economic crisis, Clinton wants to coordinate policies in advance of the G-20 crisis summit in April. Clinton is also bringing proposals to elevate a high-level economic dialogue, currently managed by the Treasury secretary, to a more comprehensive conversation that could be handled by her or even the vice president. Clinton's willingness to break a diplomatic taboo — generally U.S. officials will always claim to seek progress on human rights, even if they don't mean it — appears to be part of a determined effort by the new administration to clear the linguistic fog of international diplomacy. She noted she had generated headlines this week with remarks on the failure of sanctions to influence the Burmese junta and a possible succession crisis in North Korea. "I don't think it should be viewed as particularly extraordinary that someone in my position would say what is obvious," she said. "Maybe this is unusual because you are supposed to be so careful that you spend hours avoiding stating the obvious. But that is just not productive in my view. It is worthwhile being more straightforward. . . . That's how I see it and that's how I intend to operate." What do you think the reaction to this would be if, say, oh...Condoleezza Rice or Dick Cheney said it? She said she was "somewhat fascinated" by the reaction to her remarks on the health of North Korea leader Kim Jong Il and whether there was a power struggle underway in Pyongyang. Her comments — that "there is an increasing amount of pressure because if there is succession, even if it is a peaceful succession, that creates even more uncertainty" — prompted front-page headlines in the South Korean press and were the central focus of many of the stories written by reporters traveling with her, largely because U.S. officials generally avoid the subject for fear of offending North Korea. "To me it is the most obvious issue," Clinton said. "It has been in the news for months. I don't think that it is forbidden subject to talk about succession in the hermit kingdom." Clinton said the question of Kim's continued hold on power has to be an important part of any policy review. "You have to be thinking down the road about what, when and where," she said. "Obviously it is a factor but I don't see it as news." Posted by: Beavis 2009-02-20 |
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