US-China Relations - 133. page

Epoch Times reported that, in the morning on July 12, 2012, sina.com, a Chinese social media, removed the popular miniblog (weibo) account of the U.S. Consulate in Shangahi. A search by the Epoch Times staff of the weibo account at sina.com returned the following: “Search result cannot be displayed due to relevant law, regulations and policy.” Apparently the weibo account of the U.S. Consulate spokesperson was also deleted. Searches for “U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong,” “U.S. Embassy in China,” “Embassy in China,” and "Embassy” at sina weibo returned errors saying the search results could not be displayed.

Sources:
Epoch Times, July 12, 2012
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/12/7/12/n3634182.htm
http://t.qq.com/USConsulateShanghai

People’s Daily published several articles on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Asian visit, that was due to take place from July 5 to 18, 2012, and cover 8 countries around China. “Looking at the itinerary, it appears that she will visit all of the countries that surround China. Such an itinerary is questionable. Is this a new trick for the United States to win over the small countries and to contain a large country?” On a follow-up commentary, People’s Daily stated that the United States should “exercise restraint over its impulse to preach democracy.” “The reality has demonstrated that it is precisely because some Asian countries copied the American democratic system that these countries now have serious problems, leading to slow development. Even today some of these countries have not yet recovered.”

Source: People’s Daily, July 12, 2012
http://world.people.com.cn/BIG5/n/2012/0712/c1002-18500638.html
http://world.people.com.cn/n/2012/0712/c1002-18498337.html

China’s state-run media hit back at U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the comments she made calling for greater democracy in Asia. The official People’s Daily ran an editorial, “Washington Should Restrain Its Impulse to Preach about Democracy.” The editorial stated:

“Who gave the Americans the position to comment on democracy in Asia in such an arrogant manner? Americans may not want to dwell on this issue and may even think that this is a question that should not be asked. It is precisely the illusion on this issue that may lead to the failure of the U.S. strategy of ‘returning to Asia.’”

“Some of the U.S.’s recent practices were apparently designed to prove the legitimacy of its dominant position in Asia. Engaging in military exercises and increasing its troops stationed in the region were to shape its role as security provider; holding the banner of ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’ was to maintain its so-called moral leadership.”

“However, the more the U.S. cannot wait to do this, the more it can be seen that the U.S. is worried about losing something in Asia. There are two issues that caused Washington not to understand the reason why the U.S. feels it has alienated Asia and needs to ‘return’: on the one hand, in a relative sense, the U.S. has reduced its investment in this region; on the other hand, the region’s political and economic structure has undergone significant changes, so the position of the U.S. will be different.”

“If the U.S. moves against the general trend of cooperation in Asia, if it always shows up acting the role of preacher, if it always condescends to find fault with democracy in Asia and even wants to form a ‘team’ to contain the development of China, it will ultimately become marginalized.”

Source: People’s Daily, July 12, 2012
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2012-07/12/nw.D110000renmrb_20120712_1-03.htm

On June 29, 2012, China Review News published an article titled “China Also Needs to ‘Re-Balance’ with the United States.” The author of the article concedes that China is worried about the Obama administration’s strategy of the U.S. return to Asia. Due to the deterioration of China-ASEAN relations and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the East Asian cooperation that China has worked on in the past 15 years has ceased.

Because the United States participated in the “East Asia Summit” that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) recently led, China was subjected to a series of regional diplomatic and multilateral security mechanisms that ASEAN, under United States control, directed. Several Asia-Pacific countries asked the United States to honor its security commitments. For example, when it had a territorial conflict with China, the Philippines repeatedly cited the “Philippine – US Mutual Defense Treaty.” The United States, South Korea, and Australia have upgraded their multinational security relations. All of these have pushed China into a “security dilemma in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Source: China Review News, June 29, 2012
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1021/5/4/9/102154979.html?coluid=148&kindid=7550&docid=102154979&mdate=0630002703

China Review News published an article on June 29, 2012 titled “China Also Needs to ‘Re-Balance’ with the United States”.  The article admits that China is worried about the US return to Asia under the Obama administration. Due to the deterioration of China-ASEAN relations and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the East Asian cooperation that China has worked on in the past 15 years has stopped.

As the United States participated in “East Asia Summit” led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China was forced to subject to the series of regional diplomacy and multilateral security mechanisms led by ASEAN and controlled by the United States. Several Asia-Pacific countries asked the United States to honor its security commitments. For example, Philippines repeatedly cited the “Philippine – US Mutual Defense Treaty” when it had a territorial conflict with China. The United States, South Korea and Australia have upgraded their multinational security relations. All of these have made China inevitably fall into the “security dilemma in the Asia-Pacific region”.

Source: China Review News, June 29, 2012
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1021/5/4/9/102154979.html?coluid=148&kindid=7550&docid=102154979&mdate=0630002703

After the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution on June 18, 2012, expressing regret for having adopted the Chinese Exclusion Act 130 years ago, China’s state-run media, Huanqiu, published an editorial commenting on its passage. Huanqiu said, “China should probably not place a whole lot of hope on the American’s ‘new awakening.’ The U.S. Congress’s awakening has already sent us enough messages. The U.S. is a country that can also make mistakes. Its attitude toward other countries may well be out of whack, or even too extreme. When it involves China, we should particularly pay attention to the truth.” “Today, the U.S. attitude toward China is far from being based on any system of objective evaluation. A vast majority of the American elite are full of prejudice toward China, which is very similar to the situation over 100 years ago when Americans discriminated against the Chinese. American media usually use such labels as ‘tyranny’ or even ‘totalitarian’ to describe China. They are not willing to carefully study the internal force behind China’s rapid development.”

Source: Huanqiu, June 20, 2012
 http://opinion.huanqiu.com/1152/2012-06/2836326.html

Huanqiu published a commentary in response to the remarks that U.S. Defense Secretary Panetta made at the Shangri-la Dialogue.

The Huanqiu commentary stated, “China will be at disadvantage in dealing with the United States for many years into the future. China’s ability to form alliances with others will also be greatly inferior to that of the U.S.” “There is no need for China to butt heads with the U.S. In other words, to do so is the worst strategy. The best way is for China to act in such a way that U.S. military deployment becomes useless and to lead Sino-U.S. game playing in a direction that is favorable to the growth of China’s power.” The commentary stated that the direction of Sino-U.S. economic cooperation is “for our interests to be increasingly intertwined,” which appears to favor the weaker party. “We should not fight the U.S. with our forces, but with our wisdom, with an open mind and with persistence.”

Source: Huanqiu, June 4, 2012
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/1152/2012-06/2784041.html

On June 19, 2012, Huanqiu (the Chinese edition of Global Times) published an interview titled, “Zhang Zhaozhong: Many U.S. Trained Scholars Are Traitors Who Are Harming China.”  Major General Zhang Zhaozhong is from China’s National Defense University.

According to Zhang, “Some scholars have been trained in the United States. They read American books, believe in America’s ideology and help the United States to delude the Chinese. Those who said that China will surpass the United States in 20 to 30 years must have had an ulterior motive. They support Chinese in feeling relaxed and buying more bonds from the U.S. They want to kill China with their praise! This is what the imperialists are so pleased to see.”

Source: Huanqiu, June 19, 2012
http://mil.huanqiu.com/Forum/2012-06/2835748.html