Why?
If you checked CCTV and Xinhua news net, there is not a single news and photo of Hillary Clinton who is currently visiting Beijing officially as Sect of State representing USA & Obama govt.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/
Do you think this is a political and diplomatic gesture to distance Washington?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/world/asia/23notebook.html
A Clinton Listening Tour, but China Gets an Earful
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By MARK LANDLER
Published: February 22, 2009
BEIJING — Hillary Rodham Clinton said she wanted to spend her first trip as secretary of state listening. But she ended up saying a lot, and in blunter terms, than many of her pinstriped predecessors.
The Clinton Straight Talk Express made its last big stop in Beijing on Sunday, with Mrs. Clinton explaining to a Chinese talk show host why China had better keep buying United States Treasury bonds.
“It’s a good investment, it’s a safe investment,” she told Yang Lan, the host of a show on Dragon Television.
The Chinese government, she said, has an even more compelling incentive to keep buying: it needs the United States to recover as a market for Chinese goods. To jolt the economy back to life, she added, the United States needs to be able to take on more debt.
“We are truly going to rise or fall together,” she said. “We are in the same boat and, thankfully, we are rowing in the same direction.” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner could not have said it better.
Speaking of Mr. Geithner, Mrs. Clinton cleared up the question of how the two of them were going to divide China policy. Speculation about who would control China policy has crackled since it became clear she was not ready to cede it to the Treasury Department, as happened during the Bush administration.
Mrs. Clinton said she and Mr. Geithner would share leadership of a high-level consultation between China and the United States that would be balanced between strategic issues like North Korea and economic concerns.
Before leaving Beijing, Mrs. Clinton met with female lawyers, doctors and academics. It is the kind of encounter she has thrived on since she was first lady, and she has been a heroine in this circle since her famous speech to a women’s conference in Beijing in 1995.
One woman spoke of posing with a wax figure of Mrs. Clinton on a trip to the United States. Several had met her before, and they could not resist commiserating with her about her presidential campaign.
Xie Lihua, the founder of a group that represents rural women, said she memorized the words “I hope you win” for a meeting with Mrs. Clinton last year. When she shook her hand then, Ms. Xie was so nervous that she blanked on the words. “If I had said it, you probably would have won,” she said.
In Obama’s Town
There was little chance of Mrs. Clinton’s forgetting the campaign when she landed in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. Waiting for her on the tarmac was a group of children from the school President Obama attended when he lived in Indonesia as a boy. They serenaded her under a stormy tropical sky.
After a meeting with the foreign minister, Hassan Wirajuda, the subject of when Mr. Obama might visit came up. “We cannot wait too long, and I wish Hillary Clinton would convey this to President Obama,” he said.
At dinner on Wednesday night, Mrs. Clinton joked about how many people had asked her the same question. The next morning, she said she had spoken to Mr. Obama by phone and passed along the requests. The word is Mr. Obama might make it to Indonesia in the fall.
Tea With the Empress
After 16 years on the world stage, there is little in the way of pomp and ceremony that can dazzle Mrs. Clinton. In Tokyo, she was invited to a formal tea with Empress Michiko, who accorded her the very rare honor of emerging from the cloistered imperial residence to greet her.
Clasping Mrs. Clinton’s left arm and drawing her close, Empress Michiko spoke in English to her guest, her eyes sparkling. As they went inside, photographers were ordered to stop their clicking, one of many rules that keep the imperial family at a strict remove from ordinary society.
Yet at a town hall meeting at the University of Tokyo, Mrs. Clinton talked about the visit as though it had been just a couple of old pals catching up. Noting that she first met the empress 15 years ago, Mrs. Clinton said, “We were both saying we had gotten older.” This, she said, led to a discussion of how caretaking for the elderly could become a growth industry in Japan.
A Familiar Feel in the Air
There were times when the secretary’s plane felt more like a campaign charter, hopping between a state fair in Jakarta and a stump speech in Seoul, South Korea. Mrs. Clinton brought along a coterie of aides from her campaign and the White House, giving the diplomatic mission a distinctly political flavor.
Lissa Muscatine, a longtime aide, was busy writing speeches. Kiki McLean, a veteran Democratic Party strategist who is helping Mrs. Clinton on a transitional basis, trooped back to the press section to chat up reporters and dole out good-natured spin.
Huma Abedin, Mrs. Clinton’s aide-de-camp and ubiquitous seatmate during the campaign, was never more than a few steps away from her boss. Ms. Abedin even accompanied Mrs. Clinton to her tea with Empress Michiko, though she was guided to an antechamber to wait.
Even the itinerary had the flavor of a campaign. On the way home to Washington, Mrs. Clinton’s plane landed at Yokota Air Base in Japan to refuel, and she squeezed in a pep talk to about 350 Marines and airmen.
Speaking in a hangar under a giant American flag, flanked by two helicopters, Mrs. Clinton reported on her trip and praised the troops for being “on the front lines of defense.” Then she worked the crowd.
If you checked CCTV and Xinhua news net, there is not a single news and photo of Hillary Clinton who is currently visiting Beijing officially as Sect of State representing USA & Obama govt.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/
Do you think this is a political and diplomatic gesture to distance Washington?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/world/asia/23notebook.html
A Clinton Listening Tour, but China Gets an Earful
Article Tools Sponsored By
By MARK LANDLER
Published: February 22, 2009
BEIJING — Hillary Rodham Clinton said she wanted to spend her first trip as secretary of state listening. But she ended up saying a lot, and in blunter terms, than many of her pinstriped predecessors.
The Clinton Straight Talk Express made its last big stop in Beijing on Sunday, with Mrs. Clinton explaining to a Chinese talk show host why China had better keep buying United States Treasury bonds.
“It’s a good investment, it’s a safe investment,” she told Yang Lan, the host of a show on Dragon Television.
The Chinese government, she said, has an even more compelling incentive to keep buying: it needs the United States to recover as a market for Chinese goods. To jolt the economy back to life, she added, the United States needs to be able to take on more debt.
“We are truly going to rise or fall together,” she said. “We are in the same boat and, thankfully, we are rowing in the same direction.” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner could not have said it better.
Speaking of Mr. Geithner, Mrs. Clinton cleared up the question of how the two of them were going to divide China policy. Speculation about who would control China policy has crackled since it became clear she was not ready to cede it to the Treasury Department, as happened during the Bush administration.
Mrs. Clinton said she and Mr. Geithner would share leadership of a high-level consultation between China and the United States that would be balanced between strategic issues like North Korea and economic concerns.
Before leaving Beijing, Mrs. Clinton met with female lawyers, doctors and academics. It is the kind of encounter she has thrived on since she was first lady, and she has been a heroine in this circle since her famous speech to a women’s conference in Beijing in 1995.
One woman spoke of posing with a wax figure of Mrs. Clinton on a trip to the United States. Several had met her before, and they could not resist commiserating with her about her presidential campaign.
Xie Lihua, the founder of a group that represents rural women, said she memorized the words “I hope you win” for a meeting with Mrs. Clinton last year. When she shook her hand then, Ms. Xie was so nervous that she blanked on the words. “If I had said it, you probably would have won,” she said.
In Obama’s Town
There was little chance of Mrs. Clinton’s forgetting the campaign when she landed in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. Waiting for her on the tarmac was a group of children from the school President Obama attended when he lived in Indonesia as a boy. They serenaded her under a stormy tropical sky.
After a meeting with the foreign minister, Hassan Wirajuda, the subject of when Mr. Obama might visit came up. “We cannot wait too long, and I wish Hillary Clinton would convey this to President Obama,” he said.
At dinner on Wednesday night, Mrs. Clinton joked about how many people had asked her the same question. The next morning, she said she had spoken to Mr. Obama by phone and passed along the requests. The word is Mr. Obama might make it to Indonesia in the fall.
Tea With the Empress
After 16 years on the world stage, there is little in the way of pomp and ceremony that can dazzle Mrs. Clinton. In Tokyo, she was invited to a formal tea with Empress Michiko, who accorded her the very rare honor of emerging from the cloistered imperial residence to greet her.
Clasping Mrs. Clinton’s left arm and drawing her close, Empress Michiko spoke in English to her guest, her eyes sparkling. As they went inside, photographers were ordered to stop their clicking, one of many rules that keep the imperial family at a strict remove from ordinary society.
Yet at a town hall meeting at the University of Tokyo, Mrs. Clinton talked about the visit as though it had been just a couple of old pals catching up. Noting that she first met the empress 15 years ago, Mrs. Clinton said, “We were both saying we had gotten older.” This, she said, led to a discussion of how caretaking for the elderly could become a growth industry in Japan.
A Familiar Feel in the Air
There were times when the secretary’s plane felt more like a campaign charter, hopping between a state fair in Jakarta and a stump speech in Seoul, South Korea. Mrs. Clinton brought along a coterie of aides from her campaign and the White House, giving the diplomatic mission a distinctly political flavor.
Lissa Muscatine, a longtime aide, was busy writing speeches. Kiki McLean, a veteran Democratic Party strategist who is helping Mrs. Clinton on a transitional basis, trooped back to the press section to chat up reporters and dole out good-natured spin.
Huma Abedin, Mrs. Clinton’s aide-de-camp and ubiquitous seatmate during the campaign, was never more than a few steps away from her boss. Ms. Abedin even accompanied Mrs. Clinton to her tea with Empress Michiko, though she was guided to an antechamber to wait.
Even the itinerary had the flavor of a campaign. On the way home to Washington, Mrs. Clinton’s plane landed at Yokota Air Base in Japan to refuel, and she squeezed in a pep talk to about 350 Marines and airmen.
Speaking in a hangar under a giant American flag, flanked by two helicopters, Mrs. Clinton reported on her trip and praised the troops for being “on the front lines of defense.” Then she worked the crowd.
