From Overseas Press

Hillary Clinton's u-turn on China Policy

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-07-30 15:15

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to reporters during a news conference at the Government Guest House in Hanoi July 22, 2010. [Agencies]

Forbes' columnist Gordon Chang wrote on Wednesday that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pulled a 180 u-turn on America's China policy when she urged Beijing to resolve the South China Sea territorial issue "without coercion," immediately setting off bouts of diplomatic maneuvers.

Clinton's announcement that the territorial dispute's peaceful resolution is a "US national interest" was, in Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi's words, "an attack on China." In March, Beijing declared to visiting US officials that the South China Sea was one of China's "core interests" and brook no American interference, Chang wrote in his column.

The columnist observed that, before Clinton's arrival at a Hanoi meeting between Yang and other territorial claimants of the ASEAN members, only the Philippines was willing to raise the issue.

"Once word spread that Clinton would adopt a firm position, however, eleven participants issued statements on the matter. No wonder the Chinese feel they were ambushed in the Vietnamese capital. Whether or not it was a trap, Clinton, in her finest hour as secretary of state, supplied leadership in Southeast Asia," Chang wrote.

"And in North Asia as well, the Clinton Doctrine will also reassure Japan and South Korea, both formal military allies of the US, that Washington is in Asia to stay," Chang added.

In Chang's view, up until now, US reluctance to confront China as an emerging power was interpreted by Beijing as Washington's weakness and decline. But in a few short sentences in Hanoi, "Clinton changed that perception, both inside and outside China."

Chang hailed Clinton's declaration as a "landmark" which "may end up as the moment she redirected not only America's China policy but the China policies of nations in the region".

"Beijing's unimpeded advance to global domination has just hit resistance. And it's about time," Chang ended his column in an unpropitious tone.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates look out over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from Observation Point Ouellette during a tour the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the Republic of Korea, July 21, 2010. [Agencies]