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发帖数: 6601 | 1 http://m.economictimes.com/articleshow/44311900.cms
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit China next month,
and with tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters on the streets of
Hong Kong, human rights could force itself onto the agenda between the
United States and the Chinese in a way not seen in many years.
A major caveat, of course, is that the fervent crowds in Hong Kong could be
long gone by Nov. 10, when Obama and 20 Pacific Rim leaders gather in
Beijing for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting. That would
certainly be a relief to the Chinese host, President Xi Jinping, and
perhaps to Obama, too.
Human rights have not been a major topic of discussion between the two
countries since the aftermath of China's bloody crackdown in Tiananmen
Square 25 years ago. With Washington eager to work with Beijing on a list of
priorities - from climate change to curbing Iran's nuclear program -
officials in both countries are eager to keep it that way.
"We have principles and values that we want to promote, but we're not
looking to inject the United States into the middle of this," said a senior
administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss
internal deliberations.
The White House is not reconsidering Obama's visit, the official said,
although it has been calibrating how best to signal its concern for the
umbrella-wielding protesters in Hong Kong, especially after the police began
roughing up the crowd Sunday.
The United States knows that it has little leverage over China in the
dispute over a proposed voting law in Hong Kong, which the Chinese
government regards as a strictly internal matter. Chinese officials,
including the foreign minister who visited Washington this week, have told
their U.S. counterparts, politely, to mind their own business.
The tensions in the U.S. position are evident in how it responded to clashes
Sunday, when the police tried to disperse the protesters with tear gas and
pepper spray. The U.S. consulate in Hong Kong issued a statement urging both
sides to show restraint and making no reference to the desire of the crowds
for more democracy.
"We do not take sides in the discussion of Hong Kong's political development
," the statement said, "nor do we support any particular individuals or
groups involved in it."
Worried that the United States looked like it was bending over backward to
avoid offense, the White House sent out the press secretary, Josh Earnest,
to urge the Hong Kong authorities to show restraint and declare that the
United States supported "a genuine choice of candidates that are
representative of the people's and the voters' will."
Asked whether the White House would like to see Hong Kong's democratic
aspirations transplanted to the Chinese mainland, Earnest said, "the short
answer to that is yes."
That response is sure to enrage Chinese officials, who view the Hong Kong
protests as deeply threatening because they fear they could spread to other
parts of the country. Some Chinese officials blame the United States for the
unrest, saying it is whipping up the students. That may have influenced the
consulate's initial fence-sitting.
"The consulate statement was maladroit and unbalanced," said Jeffrey A.
Bader, Obama's senior director on China until 2011. "They had an
understandable impulse, however, to say something that dismissed Chinese
concerns that they are the black hand behind the protests."
Human-rights activists said they were generally satisfied with the White
House's response, particularly, said Sophie Richardson, the China director
of Human Rights Watch, because it linked the lack of democracy in Hong Kong
with the lack of democracy in China.
But other experts said the White House should have spoken out sooner, after
China's parliament proposed the new voting law, which would require
candidates for Hong Kong chief executive to be cleared by a nominating
committee - effectively ruling out anyone the Chinese government deemed
unacceptable. Critics also note that the United States has said little about
Xi's broader crackdown on civil liberties.
"China right now is undergoing the harshest political repression it has seen
since 1989," said David Shambaugh, director of the China policy program at
George Washington University, citing the year of the Tiananmen Square
massacre. "The situation has gone from bad to worse from Hu Jintao to Xi
Jinping, and the administration isn't speaking out about that."
There is no shortage of friction in the Chinese-U.S. relationship, from
China's aggressive treatment of its neighbors in the East and South China
Seas to accusations of Chinese military hacking of U.S. companies. And
tensions could flare over climate-change policy. Obama also needs to keep
China in the fold to seal a nuclear deal with Iran.
Even if the protests subside, some China analysts said there was a good
chance the demonstrators would seize the occasion of the summit meeting in
Beijing to re-emerge with their grievances.
With so many sensitive items on the agenda, Chinese and U.S. officials are
both laboring to prevent Hong Kong from hijacking Obama's visit. When China'
s foreign minister, Wang Yi, met with the U.S. national security adviser,
Susan E. Rice, on Wednesday, the president dropped in to "underscore his
commitment to building a stable and constructive U.S.-China relationship,"
the White House said in a statement.
Obama raised the issue of Hong Kong, but the statement made clear that he
did so only after a long list of other issues, including the Ebola outbreak
and the military campaign against the Islamic State.
In a meeting with Wang at the State Department, Secretary of State John
Kerry also mentioned Hong Kong, expressing "high hopes that the Hong Kong
authorities will exercise restraint and respect for the protesters' right to
express their views peacefully."
Wang, however, left no doubt that China did not welcome the scrutiny.
"Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs," he said, using time-tested
language. "For any country, for any society, no one will allow those
illegal acts that violate public order," he said. "That's the situation in
the United States, and that's the same situation in Hong Kong." | l**k
发帖数: 45267 | 2 悲愤吧港灿
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【在 c****x 的大作中提到】
: http://m.economictimes.com/articleshow/44311900.cms
: WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit China next month,
: and with tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters on the streets of
: Hong Kong, human rights could force itself onto the agenda between the
: United States and the Chinese in a way not seen in many years.
: A major caveat, of course, is that the fervent crowds in Hong Kong could be
: long gone by Nov. 10, when Obama and 20 Pacific Rim leaders gather in
: Beijing for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting. That would
: certainly be a relief to the Chinese host, President Xi Jinping, and
: perhaps to Obama, too.
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