CHINA

Documents & Texts from America.gov

02 July 2008
Secretary Rice Highlights Global Partnership with China

By David I. McKeeby
Staff Writer

Washington -- Progress toward peace on the Korean Peninsula may have dominated the headlines, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's wide-ranging agenda in Beijing reflects the complexity and importance of today’s U.S.-China relationship.

"We have our differences. But those differences have not obscured a very important fact. And that very important fact is that the United States and China simply must work together if we are going to resolve the many challenges that we face in the international community."

Rice spoke with reporters at a press briefing June 29 in Beijing during a four-nation visit to Germany, Japan, South Korea and China for consultations, the Group of Eight (G8) foreign ministers' meeting and regional security talks. She also made a visit to China’s Sichuan province to see a U.S.-funded earthquake recovery project in Chengdu.

Rice met with Chinese leaders ahead of a meeting to be held by President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of the G8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan. "We both believe that this upcoming meeting is very important," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said.

Bush is scheduled to return to the region in August to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

As leading members of the U.N. Security Council, both the United States and China are carefully watching post-election developments in Zimbabwe, Rice said, as well as regional reaction at the African Union Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. (See "Bush Calls for Additional Sanctions against Zimbabwe’s Rulers.")

"We’d all like the Africans to take the lead," Rice said June 30 in Beijing. "But this is not an African issue alone. This is an issue for the international community. It’s an issue for the Security Council."

As North Korea demolished the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear complex, Iran’s controversial nuclear program was another topic of discussion in Beijing, Rice said. (See "Secretary Rice in China Discusses Relations with North Korea.")

"Together with our colleagues from Russia, Germany, Britain and France, [we] have proposed to Iran a far-reaching set of proposals that would really help Iran to integrate into the international community, if they will only suspend their enrichment and reprocessing in accordance with several Security Council resolutions, and we are hopeful that they will do so," Rice said.

Chinese officials briefed Rice on China’s economic development while the secretary discussed a regional partnership on clean energy and climate change as well as China’s role in a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. (See President Bush's April 16 remarks on climate change.)

On Tibet, Rice welcomed China’s announcement that it will hold a second round of talks with representatives of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, a figure who Rice said could be key to resolving longstanding issues in the Himalayan region, where Human Rights Watch reports that as many as 1,000 Tibetan activists remain jailed following March 2008 protests.

"The Dalai Lama is a figure of considerable moral authority. He is a figure who has rejected violence," Rice said. "He doesn’t push for political independence. So we think he’s a very positive figure in dealing with this very difficult issue of Tibet. And we’ve made that case to the Chinese, and we’re going to continue to make the case."

Rice welcomed the resumption of a U.S.-China dialogue on human rights issues as well as the growing issue of free access to news and information on the Internet.

"We want to continue these discussions. They are done so in an atmosphere of mutual respect," Rice said. "The American people care greatly and deeply about issues of democracy and human rights. And so the resumption of our human rights dialogue has been an important step."

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