Viet Nam Human Rights
U.S. says will take tough line with China if norms violated
11/11/14
The United States
will be "very clear" with China if it veers beyond the bounds of
international norms on cybersecurity and other issues, a senior U.S.
The comments by Ben Rhodes, a deputy
national security advisor, come at a time when Beijing is increasingly assertive and has
been pushing to establish new regional institutions that it aims to lead,
including a multilateral security forum and an Asian infrastructure investment
bank.
Cyber-spying, maritime disputes, and a wide range of
other issues will come up, Rhodes said, when
U.S. President Barack Obamasits
down with Chinese President Xi Jinping for dinner on Tuesday evening and formal
talks on Wednesday. Obama is in Beijing for the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and an official state visit to China.
"We welcome the desire in China that is clearly
on display here at the summit, to play a role in the international community
that is commensurate with its economic and political standing, and its standing
as the world's most populous nation," Rhodes, one of Obama's top White
House aides, told reporters.
"At the same time, we're going to be very clear
when we believe that China
Obama arrived in China
seeking to show renewed commitment to the U.S.
strategic "pivot" toward Asia, widely seen as an effort to
counter China
Scepticism remains among some Asian allies as to
whether the United States
can fully engage with the region at a time when it is preoccupied with global
crises ranging from the fight against Islamic State, the spread of Ebola and
the conflict in Ukraine.
At the same time, the thrashing Obama's Democrats
took in last week's congressional elections may weaken his position.
But there are several areas of agreement between the
two nations.
In what appears to be an early nod to China 's concerns, Obama said in an interview to
state news agency Xinhua that groups such as the East Turkestan Islamic
Movement (ETIM) should not be allowed to establish a safe haven in China
"There are specific areas where we could work
together, for example in stemming the flow of foreign terrorist fighters and
cracking down on terrorist funding networks," Obama was quoted as saying.
Rhodes said he expected Obama and Xi to also discuss
the Islamic State movement although another U.S.
official said Beijing
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All comments [ 10 ]
“We’re being too soft on China”—such are the increasingly audible whispers of an ever mounting number of China’s neighbors and U.S. foreign policy experts.
China unilaterally asserts its rights and demands, doesn’t budge, wears everyone down, waits and waits until everyone shrugs and goes along.
Perhaps, Chinese leaders mistook his care as weakness. Perhaps they’ve seen this as weakness all along.
The Chinese do not shy from provocation and count on eventual foreign forbearance. It is time to parry this pattern and be willing to risk some dustups.
If Washington is to adopt a tougher stance toward Beijing, it needs a lot of methodical calculation.
U.S. diplomats would have to ensure beforehand that Asian nations would follow suit, so that Washington did not string itself out alone.
It’s not a stretch to assume that Chinese leaders took the U.S. response as caving in to their excessive demands.
Asian nations certainly feel Beijing has been pushing them around, increasingly. That’s why they pressured the Obama team to “pivot” or “rebalance” its policy and resources from Europe and the Mideast to Asia and the Pacific, a course already favored by the Obama team.
To be sure, and at the same, Asian leaders worry about being too closely associated with a tougher U.S.
So far, China has been doing the asserting in both the East and South China seas, resource rich areas, much to the dismay of the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan.
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