The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has hired envoys to tackle most tough foreign policy issues, but one priority she kept is China as Washington seeks Beijing’s help on challenges from North Korea to Iran.
Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner co-host two days of “strategic and economic” talks with top Chinese officials this week — meetings traditionally handled by the Treasury under the former Bush administration.
Sidelined recently by an elbow injury, Clinton also wants to reassert herself as a key player amid reports she is playing a lesser role in crafting foreign policy for President Barack Obama, her rival in last year’s Democratic presidential race.
Officials say Clinton — whose first foreign trip was to China — wants improved relations with Beijing to be a signature issue, with plans to broaden the previous focus from largely economic ties to a more “comprehensive” relationship.
“Over the past few years, the dialogue tended to shift significantly toward the economic and financial side,” said Clinton’s spokesman, P.J. Crowley.
“I think it (Clinton’s new role) reflects a return to a really broad range of issues, rather than a fairly narrow set that might have been the focus of the agenda over the past couple of years.” The goal of the talks on Monday and Tuesday in Washington is to set a framework for the Obama administration’s agenda with the Chinese government — which is sending nearly all of its key officials for sessions.
“When you look at the US-China relationship, it is kind of overweight on economics and light on security and foreign policy cooperation,” said Drew Thompson, director of China Studies at the Nixon Center.
Aside from stabilizing the shaky global economy, another focus of this week’s talks will be climate change and clean energy, an area Clinton earmarked as a diplomatic priority with Beijing and where some experts expect the most movement.
As a permanent, veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, China also has major sway on foreign policy issues the United States is most concerned about, with Iran and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions at the top of the list.
“For the first time in frankly the history of US-China relations, we have major global issues that have moved to the center of the US bilateral relationship,” said Ken Lieberthal of the Brookings Institution.
China has reluctantly agreed to three rounds of sanctions against Iran to curb its nuclear program and Washington and other Western powers want to squeeze Tehran further before year-end if it still refuses to give up sensitive atomic work the West suspects is aimed at building a bomb.
Beijing has often sided with Russia when it comes to increasing financial pressure on Iran, which says its nuclear program is to generate more power. The Obama administration wants to break that pattern.
“When push comes to shove, if the Iranians are not forthcoming, I think China will come along and agree to more sanctions,” said Douglas Paal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Clinton also needs to sustain Chinese resolve over North Korea, where tensions are escalating after several missile launches and the testing of a nuclear device in May.
Experts say one of Clinton’s biggest challenges will be to break decades of mistrust, with both sides suspicious of the other’s long-term intentions, said Lieberthal. Beijing assumed the United States would do anything to prevent China’s rise and Washington had underlying suspicions that a strong China would undermine US competitiveness and overall power in Asia.
“I think both sides have to think strategically about how to build confidence in the relationship,” added Lieberthal, who worked on China in President Bill Clinton’s administration.
But Paal cautioned Clinton against hanging her reputation too much on improved relations with China.
