US Vice-President Dick Cheney's long-held suspicion that China is a key strategic threat to the US may have been reinforced by his first official visit to that country last week, experts say.
When Cheney entered office more than three years ago ago, he viewed the problem of managing China's rapid rise as the single most important US foreign policy challenge in the 21st century.
Cheney, one of the most powerful vice presidents in US history and who exerts a quiet but strong influence on US foreign policy, may have sounded very upbeat about US-China ties during his three-day visit to Beijing and Shanghai.
But it was clear from the subtext of his speeches that he was not conciliatory on the Taiwan issue, was reserved on praise for China's recent legislation on counter-proliferation regulations and less than impressed by China's reaction to US evidence about North Korea's growing nuclear arsenal, said John Takcik, a China expert at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.
"My feeling is that Cheney returned from China with his sense of frustration with China still fresh," said Takcik, a former 23-year veteran of the US Department of State.
He said he was "struck" that Cheney was not as effusive in his praise of China's cooperation in either the war on terror or resolving the North Korean nuclear turmoil as perhaps previous administration figures had been.
"My sense is that he continues to see China as a major challenge," Takcik said. "But again there is no percentage in raising tensions with the Chinese when we still have a number of other issues which are more pressing right now."
Takcik believes that Cheney's trip might prod the Bush administration to begin a "whole reappraisal" of its China strategy.
"The real challenge for the United States is how do we deal with an East Asia which is coming increasingly under China's political sway," Takcik said.
Derek Mitchell, an Asian affairs expert at the US Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Cheney's fundamental assessment that China would be a rival and competitor with the US in the future could not have changed after his trip.
Mitchell said US focus on China was diverted after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US, which led to a Washington-led global war on terrorism and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the Bush administration did not believe China was going to be a friend or partner forever, he added.
"We went from viewing China before 9/11 as being a prime part of the problem and into becoming after 9/11 an important part of the solution to international problems," he added.
Mitchell said Taiwan could top any review of Washington's China policy following Cheney's return at the weekend.
"I think they are looking at how to deal with China in the context of Taiwan and how to get China to be more flexible and more creative to create better conditions for stability across the Strait," he said.
During his China trip, Cheney had been blunt on Taiwan, stressing that the US would continue supplying weapons to Taiwan.
"The central message that Cheney said on the Taiwan issue was that our arms relationship with Taiwan is a direct function of this threat posed by China and since that threat is clearly increasing, our arms relationship and defense commitments to Taiwan concomitantly increases," Takcik said.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
NASA on Thursday said that the long-delayed launch of Artemis 2, the first crewed flyby mission to the moon in more than 50 years, could come as soon as April 1. “We are on track for a launch as early as April 1, and we are working toward that date,” Lori Glaze, a senior NASA official, told a news conference, after technical difficulties delayed a launch originally expected last month. “It’s a test flight, and it is not without risk, but our team and our hardware are ready,” she said. “Just keep in mind we still have work” to do. The US space
RSS