Clinton vows to strengthen US relations with Asia
　

‘READY TO WORK’: The US secretary of state is to depart on her first foreign trip today, visiting Asia to set the tone of the new administration’s relations with the region

AFP, NEW YORK
Sunday, Feb 15, 2009, Page 1

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged on Friday to deepen US bonds with Asia in order to tackle the global economic crisis and climate change as well as prevent nuclear proliferation.

On the eve of her tour of Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China, her first foreign trip, Clinton said in a speech she was “ready to deliver a message about America’s desire for more rigorous and persistent commitment and engagement.”

She added she was “ready to work with leaders in Asia to resolve the economic crisis ... [and] to strengthen our historic partnerships and alliances while developing deeper bonds with all nations.”

In her first foreign policy speech, delivered before the Asia Society, a non-profit educational institution, Clinton said she was also “ready to help prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Asia.”

Clinton added that North Korea’s nuclear program remained “the most acute challenge to stability in northeast Asia.”

She said US President Barack Obama’s administration would build a strong relationship with the Pyongyang if it scraps its nuclear program. The country alarmed the world in 2006 with the test of a nuclear device.

If Pyongyang “completely and verifiably” eliminates the program, Washington “will be willing to normalize bilateral relations, replace the peninsula’s longstanding armistice agreements with a permanent peace treaty.”

She said Washington would also “assist in meeting the energy and other economic needs of the North Korean people,” who face hunger and economic hardships.

Analysts say Clinton appears to have chosen Japan as her first stop to smooth feathers she ruffled when she wrote during the presidential campaign that the US-China relationship will be the most important one.

Clinton stressed that climate change would be a key topic on her visit, particularly with China’s rapid industrial growth.

“Climate change is not just an environmental nor an energy issue, but also has implications for our health, our economies and our security,” Clinton said.

Accompanying her is Todd Stern, her special envoy for climate change, to “begin the discussions that we hope will create the opportunities for cooperation,” she said.

Rights groups urge Clinton to take stand on Beijing
　

By Jenny W. Hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Feb 15, 2009, Page 1

Seven leading human rights groups urged in a joint statement US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to make human rights a prominent topic in her upcoming trip to Beijing.

Clinton will leave today for her first overseas trip in her capacity as Washington’s top diplomat. She is to visit Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China on her week-long tour.

In a letter signed by Amnesty International USA, Reporters without Borders, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights in China, International Campaign of Tibet and Human Rights First, the groups urged the US to send a signal to China that “the quality of its relationship with the US will depend in part on whether it lives by universally accepted human rights norms in its domestic and foreign policies.”

“Sending such a signal in Beijing will be especially important given the US’ unfortunate absence from China’s Universal Periodic Review on Feb. 9 at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva,” said the letter, dated Thursday.

Holding Clinton to her own pledges, the groups said 13 years ago in Beijing she spoke about the “duty of all governments to respect the fundamental human rights of women and men,” the groups said, adding that contrary to public opinion, China does respond to external pressure on improving its human rights record. They said authorities agreed to move Chinese dissident Hu Jia (胡佳) to a prison closer to his family because of US intervention.

“We strongly urge that you raise these issues early in your tenure as Secretary. We are acutely aware that the US’ agenda with China is a broad one, but we believe that the desired economic, security and diplomatic progress can be reinforced through more vigorous and public defense of human rights,” the letter said.

Speaking at the Asia Society in New York on Friday, Clinton said relations with the countries she will be visiting and those in Asia and the Pacific are vital to US security and interests and that the administration is keen to strengthen ties with the region.

Recent reports from Washington showed that Beijing was ready to pounce on Clinton over arms sales to Taiwan and to use possible greenhouse gas emission reductions to further its position on the Tibet and Taiwan issues.

Taiwan’s dilemma: To send or not to send art to China?
　

THE ART OF WAR: Although Beijing signing documents ensuring the return of artifacts to Taipei would assuage fears, there is no guarantee China would respect the law

DPA, TAIPEI
Sunday, Feb 15, 2009, Page 3
　

Taiwan is considering sending its ancient Chinese treasures on exhibit in China, but first it is seeking assurances that the artworks will be returned.

The concern surrounding their return is so high that Taiwan, which holds the bulk of the imperial art collection of China after spiriting most of it to the island at the end of the Chinese Civil War, is demanding that China sign a promise called the Law of Guaranteed Return to send the items back to Taiwan at the end of the exhibition.

“Our top principle is the safe return of the artifacts,” Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said earlier this month. “China must sign the Law of Guaranteed Return before we can send the treasures on exhibition in China.”

Chou Kung-hsin (周功鑫), director of Taipei’s National Palace Museum, flew to Beijing yesterday to discuss cultural exchanges with Beijing’s Palace Museum.

She said she would ask for the loan of 29 artifacts from the Beijing institution for display at an exhibition from October to January in Taipei of artworks from the era of Emperor Yongzheng (雍正,1678-1735) of the Qing Dynasty.

The show was expected to kickstart the holding of joint exhibitions by the two palace museums after China has been eager to hold talks on exhibiting the Taipei artifacts in China.

Ahead of Chou’s departure, the Mainland Affairs Council said on Friday that China must sign the Law of Guaranteed Return with Taiwan on a government-to-government level, not just between the palace museums.

“China has always stated that the treasures in the National Palace Museum in Taipei were stolen from China by the Chinese Nationalists, so we demand that China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, sign the Law of Guaranteed Return,” council spokesman Liu Teh-shun (劉德勳) said.

“China must promise the artifacts will not be impounded and that China does not claim ownership over these artifacts,” Liu said.

When the Chinese Nationalist government lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communists in 1949, it took the best artifacts — totaling 650,000 pieces — from the Palace Museum in Beijing and a museum in Nanjing and brought them to Taipei.

Since then, these artifacts have been preserved and displayed at the National Palace Museum, which has become one of Taipei’s premier tourist attractions. Last year, 2.2 million people visited the institution.

Since 1949, it has sent some of its artworks abroad a few times, but only after their host countries signed the Law of Guaranteed Return.

Taiwan has reason to fear the seizure of the artifacts while they are on overseas exhibition because only 23 countries recognize Taiwan while more than 170 countries recognize China.

China still considers the artifacts at the National Palace Museum as treasures that were looted from China.

Liu Guoshen, a researcher from the Taiwan Research Academy at Xiamen University, dismissed fears that Taiwan’s artifacts might be confiscated by China.

“It is impossible for Beijing to confiscate the exhibits,” he said. “History is the past. The two sides have good relations now. Interaction across the Taiwan Strait is very good. Personally, I don’t think there is any problem for these artifacts to be exhibited in China.”

At this stage, it was still not clear whether China, or Beijing’s Palace Museum, would be willing to sign the Law of Guaranteed Return.

Even if Beijing allows an unofficial agency of the Palace Museum to sign the pact, its legality is questionable.

“The legal effect of a contract signed by two persons or legal entities shall not supersede that of the laws, particularly those concerning the execution of public authority,” said Lee Shih-lo, a legal expert in Taipei.

“Since China does not recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty, even if Beijing signs the Law of Guaranteed Return, there is no guarantee that Beijing will return the treasures to Taipei after their exhibition in China,” he said. “If Taiwan knows the risks involved, it should not send the treasures to China now as the cross-strait relationship is still unstable.”

China uneasy with new US regime
　

By Sushil Seth
Sunday, Feb 15, 2009, Page 8

Last month when some former US political heavyweights attended a two-day conference in Beijing to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the normalization of relations between the US and China on Jan. 1, 1979, it was more like an exercise in nostalgia.

Jimmy Carter, who was the US president at the time, said: “There is no more important diplomatic relationship in the world than the one that has grown between the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America.”

On the Chinese side, former vice premier Qian Qichen (錢其琛) talked of how over “the past three decades, thanks to our joint efforts, the ship of China-US relations has moved forward, braving winds and waves.”

It is not unusual to talk hyperbole on such occasions. But it is painful to note that for much of the George W. Bush presidency, there was an attempt to gloss over the developing problems in China-US relations.

The paramount consideration was not to ruffle the Chinese feathers lest they become difficult on some of the issues confronting the US, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, North Korean nuclear aspirations, the Iran nuclear issue and the generic question of terrorism.

Therefore, when Taipei sought to promote Taiwan’s sovereignty, the reaction from Bush and his administration was quite testy and sharp. They didn’t want any spat with the Chinese at a time when the US was over-stretched in the Middle East.

And it suited Beijing, which used the ensuing power vacuum to expand its political influence and global reach, including lining up oil and other needed resources for its economic growth.

Within Taiwan, it strengthened the position of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), leading it to win handsome rewards both in the legislative and presidential elections that followed.

The US frowned on former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) “provocative” policy toward China.When Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won the presidential election, he donned, among other things, the role of a peacenik when it came to China.

In the larger scheme of US-China relations, Washington’s obsession with cultivating China by ignoring other issues has simply postponed a much-needed assessment of overall US interests.

For instance, Bush’s treasury secretary went out of his way to hose down any criticism of China’s trade policies, particularly the charge that it was manipulating its currency to increase exports to the US.

China’s undervalued currency adversely affected the US in two ways. First, it damaged the US manufacturing industry, as it couldn’t compete with cheap Chinese products. Second, the resulting trade imbalance has enabled China to accumulate vast amounts of dollar reserves.

Beijing has invested a substantial part of those reserves to buy US treasury notes and other assets. This has given it a potential role in influencing US policies by being its major creditor and a lender at a time when Washington needs dollops of money to fund its stimulus packages.

The administration of US President Barack Obama will need to grapple with this issue. Timothy Geithner, for instance, touched on it during his Senate confirmation hearings for treasury secretary. He reportedly told the senators that Obama believed that China was “manipulating” its currency for unfair advantage.

The response from the Chinese ministry of commerce was sharp, saying: “Directing unsubstantiated criticism at China on the exchange-rate issue will only help US protectionism and will not help towards a real solution to the issue.”

During his presidential election campaign, Obama was forthright on the issue, saying that Beijing had pegged its currency at an artificially low rate.

“This,” he said, “is not good for American firms and workers, not good for the world and ultimately likely to produce inflation problems in China itself.”

While this will become an issue in bilateral relations, Beijing is likely to deflect it by focusing on the global economic crisis. For instance, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, China went on the attack to blame the US for all the economic trouble plaguing the world.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) blamed it all on “inappropriate [US] macroeconomic policies ... unsustainable model of development characterized by prolonged low savings and high consumption ... blind pursuit of profit ... and the failure of financial supervision.”

However much China might want to deflect the issue of currency valuation and use the buying of US debt instruments as a pressure tactic, the issue will not go away.

Its undervalued currency, causing trade distortion and imbalance to US disadvantage, will thus be a thorn in US-China relations under the Obama administration.

For China, Bush was close to an ideal US president whose misconceived policies helped China to expand its political and economic influence. His treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, was quite useful in putting a lid on the issue of currency valuation.

As China specialist Kenneth Lieberthal has said: “The Chinese are probably one of the few people in the world who were sorry to see President Bush go, and are nervous about his successor.”

They are also “uneasy about [US Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton. She has, in their assessment, not been a friend of China.”

And they might as well be, as Clinton is seeking to broaden the agenda of US-China relations beyond the economy. She has said that the US needed “a more comprehensive approach.” In her view, the strategic dialogue of the Bush administration “turned into an economic dialogue,” with China benefitting from it.

Clinton didn’t specify the issues that might feature in her strategic dialogue. But in any list, Taiwan and Tibet will feature prominently where China would like to buy US silence/support. And that will remain a problem.

As former National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who participated in the 30th anniversary celebrations, said, China could help the US find solutions for a whole set of problems such as the global financial crisis, climate change, Iran’s nuclear program, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and problems in the Middle East. It’s quite a list, allowing China to play quite a few of its own cards.

Looking at it,US-China relations are not likely to have an easy ride under the Obama administration. Both sides, though, will be keen not to let things get out of control, especially in the midst of an ongoing global economic crisis.

Sushil Seth is a writer based in Australia.