Kerry Meets China's
Xi amid Heightened Asia Tensions
Friday, 14 Feb 2014 11:13 AM
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Chinese President Xi Jinping
Friday, amid increasingly tense territorial rows between Beijing
and Washington's security allies Tokyo and Manila.
Kerry started his Valentine's Day
visit with a meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People, and was due to
meet other officials including Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi later.
Kerry's trip comes at a pivotal
moment for the region, with flaring disputes between Beijing
and Tokyo over their World War II history and
disputed islands in the East China Sea sending relations between the Asian powers
plummeting to their lowest point in recent years.
Fears of an aerial or maritime
clash over the islands have spiked following Beijing's
recent declaration of an air defense identification zone in the skies above the
East China Sea. Patrol boats from both
countries regularly shadow each other in the waters near the islands.
At the same time Beijing
has been acting increasingly assertively in the South
China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety.
In remarks Thursday night before
leaving Seoul, the first leg of his Asia trip, Kerry reaffirmed that the East
China Sea islands, called Diaoyu by Beijing and Senkaku by Tokyo, fall under
the security treaty that obliges the US to intervene on Japan's behalf if it is
attacked by a third country.
"That is the position of the United States
with respect to those islands," he said, referring to them by their
Japanese name.
Kerry refrained from weighing in,
however, on the issue of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's December visit to
the controversial Yasukuni war shrine, a move that infuriated both Beijing and
Seoul and drew a rebuke from Washington.
While there is "legitimate
concern about the past", Kerry said, there are also "issues of
enormous current pressing concern that deal with security that are relevant in
terms of today, not in terms of history".
"And it is vital for us to be
able to continue to stay focused on the high stakes, in terms of everybody's
lives right now, of those issues," he said.
Chinese state media, however,
remained focused on the historical issues at play, with the China Daily
newspaper on Friday running an editorial cartoon depicting Abe offering a
Valentine's Day rose to a dead kamikaze pilot's skull.
The cartoon appeared to be a
reference to a recent bid by the Japanese city of Minami-Kyushu
for World War II kamikaze fighters' farewell letters to be included in a UNESCO
world heritage register, a move that drew swift condemnation from Beijing and Seoul.
The Global Times newspaper, which
is close to China's ruling Communist Party, wrote in an editorial Friday that
while Kerry's visit to Beijing is expected to be a "smooth" one, the
US' promised "pivot" to Asia "has triggered pressure on China's
strategies".
"Communication will, of
course, play a part in prompting Washington to
take a moderate stance toward China,
but what's more significant is that we must make more friends with a more
proactive foreign policy," the paper wrote.
The issue of North
Korea is also high on the agenda for
Kerry's visit. Washington hopes to secure Beijing's help in
prodding its belligerent ally to take meaningful action towards
denuclearization.
China
Xi
Jinping is the president of China.
Note: Chen Zhili is the
education minister for China,
and is a director at the ClimateWorks Foundation.
Winston Bao Lord
was an ambassador for China,
and is an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the ClimateWorks Foundation, the International
Rescue Committee, the Brookings Institution (think tank), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank), and the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Cameron F. Kerry
is a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and John F. Kerry’s brother.
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank),
and married to John F. Kerry.
John
F. Kerry is Cameron F. Kerry’s
brother, married to Teresa Heinz Kerry,
and the secretary at the U.S. Department
of State for the Barack Obama
administration.
Jon M. Huntsman
Jr. was a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank),
a U.S. ambassador for China,
is a fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a trustee at
the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace (think tank).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews was an honorary
trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), is the president of
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), a director
at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank),
and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with
Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population
control by involving the United
States in war)
J.
Stapleton Roy is a trustee at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and was a U.S. ambassador for China.
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Ted
Turner is a co-chairman for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), a member of Kappa Sigma, and the founder of CNN.
James
R. Sasser is a member of Kappa Sigma,
a director at the National Committee on
United States-China Relations, a co-chairman for the United States-China Policy Foundation, and was a U.S. ambassador for China.
Walter
Isaacson was the chairman & CEO for CNN, and is the president & CEO for the Aspen Institute (think tank).
James S.
Crown is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), the
president for Henry Crown and Company, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Lester Crown
was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), is the
chairman for Henry Crown and Company, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Henry
Crown and Company is an investor in the Chicago Bulls.
Dennis
Rodman was a player for the Chicago Bulls, and met with Kim Jong
Un in 2013.
Kim Jong Un
met with Dennis Rodman in 2013, and is the leader of North Korea.
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