The New York Times.
BEIJING — The United States and China clashed openly on Wednesday on two of the most contentious issues riling their relationship, the violence in Syria and growing tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
After hours of meetings with China’s leaders that began Tuesday night and continued Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
failed to narrow the gaps over international crises involving Syria,
Iran and North Korea and the competition for dominance in the
Asia-Pacific region.
In particular, the Chinese leadership showed no signs of buckling after
months of efforts by Mrs. Clinton and her senior aides to convince China
to be more flexible on maritime disputes in the South China Sea.
“China has sovereignty over the islands of the South China Sea and the
adjacent waters,” the foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, declared flatly
during a lengthy appearance with Mrs. Clinton in the Great Hall of the
People on Tiananmen Square. “There is plentiful historical and
jurisprudential evidence for that.”
When asked about the
deepening of American military engagement in Australia and the
Philippines, Mr. Yang pointedly added that the United States should
reconsider its own strategy in Asia in light of “the trends of our
current era and the general wish of countries in the region.”
Mrs. Clinton and her senior aides did not come to Beijing with high
expectations of resolving major differences, given China’s
once-in-a-decade leadership transition beginning this fall.
Indeed, the leadership was “in no mood to be constructive” on major
foreign issues with the United States, according to a senior diplomat in
Beijing, speaking anonymously in accordance with diplomatic norms.
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