Thursday, February 23, 2012
A blow-hot, blow-cold visit
From The Hindu
Reflecting the mixture of bonhomie and acerbic disagreement in the United States-China relationship, the ongoing talks between visiting Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterparts appeared to swing between warmth and cold dissonance — the latter mostly on the human rights question.
In the brief two days that he has spent here, Mr. Xi, acknowledged by U.S. officials to be the future head of the Chinese political system, has held talks with President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joseph Biden and other top officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.
He has been accorded top honours during his time in Washington, including a 19-gun salute and an honour guard of 350 troops in an unprecedented Pentagon ceremony for a foreign Vice-President.
For all the repeated assertions by the White House that U.S.-China cooperation mattered for the entire world, specifically in North Korea and Iran, and for global issues such as climate change and nuclear security, it was the sharp divergence on a range of core issues that grabbed the headlines.
Leading the charge was Mr. Biden, who said at a State Department luncheon that the relationship could be mutually beneficial only “if the game is fair”. He added that in meetings with Mr. Xi, the U.S. had discussed its areas of greatest concern, “including the need to rebalance the global economy, protect intellectual property rights and trade secrets, to address China's undervalued exchange rate, to level the competitive playing field”. Mr. Biden also did not mince his words when he said the U.S. “strongly disagreed with China and Russia's veto of a resolution against the unconscionable violence being perpetrated by the Assad regime [in Syria]”.
The strongest words came from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, who said he believed “Someone in China is hacking into our systems and stealing technology and intellectual property, which at this point is a crime.”
Even President Obama did not hold back on candid critique of China's record on human rights, saying to Mr. Xi at the Oval Office, “On critical issues like human rights, we will continue to emphasise what we believe is the importance of recognising the aspirations and rights of all people.”
Mr. Xi, however, did not allow his interlocutors to escape unchallenged and hit back at Mr. Biden saying, “We should address each other's economic and trade concerns through dialogue and consultation, not protectionism.” In his rebuttal on the human rights questions, Mr. Xi struck a balanced tone, insisting China had made “tremendous and well-recognised” progress while admitting that there was “always room for improvement”.
Reflecting the mixture of bonhomie and acerbic disagreement in the United States-China relationship, the ongoing talks between visiting Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterparts appeared to swing between warmth and cold dissonance — the latter mostly on the human rights question.
In the brief two days that he has spent here, Mr. Xi, acknowledged by U.S. officials to be the future head of the Chinese political system, has held talks with President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joseph Biden and other top officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.
He has been accorded top honours during his time in Washington, including a 19-gun salute and an honour guard of 350 troops in an unprecedented Pentagon ceremony for a foreign Vice-President.
For all the repeated assertions by the White House that U.S.-China cooperation mattered for the entire world, specifically in North Korea and Iran, and for global issues such as climate change and nuclear security, it was the sharp divergence on a range of core issues that grabbed the headlines.
Leading the charge was Mr. Biden, who said at a State Department luncheon that the relationship could be mutually beneficial only “if the game is fair”. He added that in meetings with Mr. Xi, the U.S. had discussed its areas of greatest concern, “including the need to rebalance the global economy, protect intellectual property rights and trade secrets, to address China's undervalued exchange rate, to level the competitive playing field”. Mr. Biden also did not mince his words when he said the U.S. “strongly disagreed with China and Russia's veto of a resolution against the unconscionable violence being perpetrated by the Assad regime [in Syria]”.
The strongest words came from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey, who said he believed “Someone in China is hacking into our systems and stealing technology and intellectual property, which at this point is a crime.”
Even President Obama did not hold back on candid critique of China's record on human rights, saying to Mr. Xi at the Oval Office, “On critical issues like human rights, we will continue to emphasise what we believe is the importance of recognising the aspirations and rights of all people.”
Mr. Xi, however, did not allow his interlocutors to escape unchallenged and hit back at Mr. Biden saying, “We should address each other's economic and trade concerns through dialogue and consultation, not protectionism.” In his rebuttal on the human rights questions, Mr. Xi struck a balanced tone, insisting China had made “tremendous and well-recognised” progress while admitting that there was “always room for improvement”.
Labels: Barack Obama, US-China ties, Xi Jinping
# posted by Narayan Lakshman @ 1:32 PM 
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