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| In China, Clinton Says Human Rights 'Can't Interfere' With Talks |
| 2009-02-20 |
| 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 |
| #4 Anything China did to reduce their CO2 production would also reduce the massive amount of pollution they put into the air breathed by everyone to their east... like western North America. It would not be a bad thing if they worked to reduce it a bit. Although as I think about it, the reduction in factory production due to the worldwide recession must have a significant impact on China's emission of pollutants. Well done, China! Secretary of State Clinton hasn't even arrived for discussions, and already you have made concessions of one of her key points!! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-02-20 23:16 |
| #3 "The Obama administration has high hopes of winning China's cooperation on reducing harmful greenhouse gases." Slave labor, infantcide, freedom of speech, computer hacking, Nork aggression, currency manipulation, arms trafficking, etc...be Dammed! As long as the ChiComs are in the fix for the Global Warming boondoggle...then things are oakeedoakee. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2009-02-20 21:46 |
| #2 "Leaders really need to step up and pressure China. It's often easy to wonder whether pressure makes a difference. It may not make a difference in one day or one month, but it would be visible after some years," Dorjee said. I doesn't make a bit of difference when we owe them a shitload of money. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2009-02-20 20:42 |
| #1 C'mon, folks. "Hope" and "change"... Activists 'shocked' at Clinton stance on China rights WASHINGTON (AFP) – Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China. Paying her first visit to Asia as the top US diplomat, Clinton said the United States would continue to press China on long-standing US concerns over human rights such as its rule over Tibet. "But our pressing on those issues can't interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis," Clinton told reporters in Seoul just before leaving for Beijing. T. Kumar of Amnesty International USA said the global rights lobby was "shocked and extremely disappointed" by Clinton's remarks. "The United States is one of the only countries that can meaningfully stand up to China on human rights issues," he said. "But by commenting that human rights will not interfere with other priorities, Secretary Clinton damages future US initiatives to protect those rights in China." Students for a Free Tibet said Clinton's remarks sent the wrong signal to China at a sensitive time. "The US government cannot afford to let Beijing set the agenda," said Tenzin Dorjee, deputy director of the New York-based advocacy group. China has been pouring troops into the Himalayan territory ahead of next month's 50th anniversary of the uprising that sent Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama into exile in India. "Leaders really need to step up and pressure China. It's often easy to wonder whether pressure makes a difference. It may not make a difference in one day or one month, but it would be visible after some years," Dorjee said. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had sent a letter to Clinton before her maiden Asia visit urging her to raise human rights concerns with Chinese leaders. Before she left, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said human rights would be "an important issue" for Clinton and that she would "raise the issue when appropriate." China has greeted President Barack Obama's administration nervously, believing he would press Beijing harder on human rights and trade issues than former president George W. Bush. Well, sounds like they won't have to worry about that anymore... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-02-20 17:06 |