With the US facing a multipronged challenge from China, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared on Thursday that the 21st century would be “America’s Pacific century” and said the region’s problems required US leadership.
While stressing that the administration of US President Barack Obama would seek improved ties with China, Clinton used a speech ahead of an Asia-Pacific summit to dissuade Beijing and others from thinking the US was ceding its traditional role in the Pacific.
“There are challenges facing the Asia-Pacific right now that demand America’s leadership, from ensuring freedom of navigation in the South China Sea to countering North Korea’s provocations and proliferation activities to promoting balanced and inclusive economic growth,” she said.
Clinton’s remarks, in a speech at the East-West Center, were part of a campaign by Obama to “pivot” US foreign policy to focus more intensely on Asia after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that, in the 21st century, the world’s strategic and economic center of gravity will be the Asia-Pacific, from the Indian subcontinent to [the] western shores of the Americas,” she said.
While saying China and the US needed to cooperate to stimulate global economic growth, Clinton’s criticisms of Beijing’s human rights policies were certain to anger China’s leaders.
“We are alarmed by recent incidents in Tibet of young people lighting themselves on fire in desperate acts of protest, as well as the continued house arrest of the Chinese lawyer Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠),” Clinton said, referring to recent cases in China.
Clinton said Washington aimed to forge in the Asia-Pacific region in this century a network similar to the transatlantic network of institutions and relationships that the US and its allies in Europe built in the 20th century.
“Today, there is a need for a more dynamic and durable transpacific system — a more mature security and economic architecture that will promote security, prosperity, and universal values; resolve differences among nations; foster trust and accountability; and encourage effective cooperation on the scale that today’s challenges demand,” she said.
While bolstering security and political ties, the US would make economic issues “front and center” in relationships in the region, pushing to open markets for trade and investment, Clinton said.
“To accomplish these goals, we must create a rules-based order — one that is open, free, transparent, and fair,” she said.
Although she said the US was not trying to “constrain” China, she sent a message to regional allies that Washington would be a counterbalance to Beijing’s economic and military clout and would demand it play by trade rules.
“US firms want fair opportunities to export to China’s markets and a level playing field for competition,” she said in a speech shortly after Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) arrived.
“Chinese firms want to be able to buy more high-tech products from the US, make more investments here, and be accorded the same terms of access that market economies enjoy,” she said.
A senior US Department of State official said that China recognized a US role in the region.
“We are a fact on the ground in the Asia-Pacific region and I think China recognizes that and seeks to work with us,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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