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US diplomat makes
hurried China trip
PIVOT: The US is starting two weeks of intense
diplomacy in Asia, hoping to work with Japan and shore up its ties with India,
which have been ¡¥drifting¡¦ after its failure to pass key reforms
AP and AFP, BEIJING and Washington
A senior US diplomat arrived in China on a hurried mission yesterday as new
problems ¡X from possible US arms sales to Taiwan to the custody of a blind
dissident ¡X threaten to complicate relations with Beijing ahead of high-level
talks.
US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell avoided reporters and the US
embassy declined to discuss his agenda. His trip, originally scheduled for later
this coming week, comes after the White House said it was considering selling
new warplanes to Taiwan and after dissident legal activist Chen Guangcheng (³¯¥ú¸Û)
fled house arrest and ended up, rights campaigners said, in the protection of US
officials.
Both Chen¡¦s case, if he¡¦s in US custody, and that of Taiwan touch on Beijing¡¦s
red lines against what it sees as meddling in China¡¦s domestic affairs. Beijing
will have ample opportunity to voice its displeasure at an annual confab on
Thursday and Friday attended by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, US
Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and dozens of other officials.
The meeting, known as the strategic and economic dialogue, is supposed to
provide ballast for the often-bumpy relations by giving top-level officials a
chance to discuss problems and look for solutions.
Chen¡¦s case is likely to complicate things further. A campaigner against forced
abortions and sterilizations, Chen spent four years in prison and then was kept
in punitive house arrest for the past 20 months, despite the lack of legal
grounds for doing so.
Clinton and other US officials have repeatedly raised his case, though Beijing
did nothing to abate the confinement, occasional beatings and other harsh
treatment.
If Chen is now in the US embassy or other diplomatic grounds, Beijing is likely
to see it as evidence that Washington wants to subvert the government by aiding
and encouraging political dissent.
Complicating any negotiations over Chen is the treatment of his family. While
Chen escaped a week ago from Dongshigu village in Shandong Province and made it
600km northwest to Beijing, his wife and child were left behind and their
whereabouts are unknown.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will meet US President Barack
Obama at the White House today, followed by a gala dinner thrown by Clinton, who
will fly out immediately afterward for Asia.
Clinton will then head to India after a stop in Bangladesh. Clinton and US
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta will also hold their first joint talks today
with counterparts from the Philippines, in a sign of a growing alliance.
Clinton, on her last visit to India last year, urged a greater global role for
New Delhi and said that the US-Indian relationship would shape the 21st century.
However, momentum has since cooled, with some US lawmakers for the first time in
years criticizing India because of its refusal to fall immediately into line
with a US law threatening sanctions on countries if they buy oil from Iran.
US businesses have also been concerned as India¡¦s parliament has balked on some
of their main wishes, including opening up to foreign retail giants such as
Walmart and providing nuclear firms exemptions from liabilities.
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