Clinton in China pushes environment, finance

合眾社 MATTHEW LEE

BEIJING – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

and Chinese officials agreed Saturday to focus their

governments' efforts on stabilizing the battered global

economy and combating climate change, putting aside 

long-standing concerns about human rights.

...

"It is essential that the United States and China have a

positive, cooperative relationship," Clinton told reporters

at a joint news conference with Yang. She said that they

also agreed on the need to develop clean energy

technology that would use renewable sources and safely

store the dirty emissions from burning coal.

With the export-heavy Chinese economy reeling from the

U.S. downturn, Clinton sought to reassure China that its

massive holdings of U.S. Treasury notes and other

government debt would remain a good investment.

"I appreciate greatly the Chinese government's continuing

confidence in United States treasuries. I think this is well-

grounded confidence," she said. "We have every reason

to believe that the United States and China will recover,

and together we will help lead the world recovery."

Yang said China wants its foreign exchange reserves --

the world's largest at $1.95 trillion -- invested safely, with

good value and liquidity. He said future decisions on using

them would be based on those principles, but added that

China wanted to continue work with the U.S.

"I want to emphasize here that the facts speak louder than

words. The fact is that China and the United States have

conducted good cooperation, and we are ready to

continue to talk with the U.S. side," Yang said.

Beijing is the last, and some analysts say, the most

important stop on Clinton's weeklong visit to Japan,

Indonesia, South Korea and China. She was to meet

China's president and premier as well as tour a

geothermal power plant before leaving Sunday.

Along with cooperating on the financial crisis and climate

change, the United States wants China to step up efforts

to address threats like Iran and North Korea's nuclear

programs and tenuous security situations in Afghanistan

and Pakistan.

In addition, Clinton said the U.S. would like to see China

play a positive role in Myanmar and Sudan, two countries

which receive large Chinese investments but whose

governments are at odds with Washington.

The emphasis on the global economy, climate change and

security highlight the growing importance of U.S.-China

relations, which have often soured over disagreements on

human rights.

But ahead of the talks, Clinton signaled that China's poor

human rights record, while still of deep concern to the

United States, would not be at the top of her agenda.

She noted that both sides already knew the other's

positions on the matter and said that human rights

concerns "can't interfere with the global economic crisis,

the global climate change crisis and the security crises."

...

"Human rights are part of our comprehensive agenda,"

she said.

...

Yang appeared pleased by Clinton's reply, saying China

was happy to engage on human rights with the United

States but only "on the basis of equality and

noninterference in each other's internal affairs."

Authorities in Beijing are facing a difficult year on the

rights front as they try to muffle dissent ahead of

politically sensitive anniversaries: 20 years since the

crushing of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement

and 50 since the failed Tibetan uprising that forced the

Dalai Lama to flee into exile.

...

轉貼自︰

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090221/ap_on_re_as/as_clinton_china