http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/secure/2010/11_03/ne.as p
Obama administration acknowledges internal China policy fight A State Department spokesman last week defended the Obama administration's China policies amid new reports of divisions within the administration over how to deal with Beijing. Spokesman P.J. Crowley said numerous issues related to U.S.-China relations, such as Iran's nuclear program, North Koreas' sinking of the South Korean ship Cheonan, human rights and trade remain contentious. "We recognize that there are significant areas where we do cooperate with China, and have the ability, you know, to advance and solve global issues together," Crowley said. "We recognize that in this kind of relationship, we're also going to have areas where we have disagreements. But the way to manage these disagreements is through the kind of ongoing dialogue that we do have with China." "The U.S. has an ongoing dialogue with China on North Korea and human rights, and Washington needs help from China to deal with the recession. You're not going to solve the global economic crisis without significant action by China and the United States, among other countries," he said. Crowley spoke the day The Washington Times reported that a heated policy debate on China has broken out within the Obama administration. The report identified two camps, including one powerful faction that favors past policies of conciliation and concessions in relations with China that has been dubbed the "kowtow" group and a second, more centrist, group that is characterized as "sad and disappointed" by China's across-the-board refusal to work cooperatively with the United States for the past two years. The policy dispute remains largely hidden from public view and is said to be the target of a major influence operation by Chinese diplomats and intelligence personnel, using their sympathizers in and out of government. The Obama administration has failed to gain substantive cooperation from Beijing in stemming Iran's nuclear program, getting North Korea to negotiate, and working to come to terms on currency valuation, trade and other economic issues. Beijing has also refused to cooperate on climate change. The "kowtow" group is headed by Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and includes White House National Security Council Asia Staff Director Jeff Bader, and his deputy, Evan Medeiros, a China military expert. Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing also support continuing the current U.S. policies aimed to avoid upsetting Beijing's communist leaders. The centrist faction's most senior members are Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and, although not technically a policy official, CIA Director Leon E. Panetta. Included among the "sad and disappointed" group are Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, and Wallace "Chip" Gregson, a retired Marine three-star general and assistant defense secretary for Asian and Pacific security affairs. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtmlYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
