In early September, as Bill Clinton wowed the crowd at the Democratic convention in Charlotte,
his wife was facing a smaller and less appreciative audience in
Beijing. The Secretary of State had come to China with soothing words
and appeals for cooperation. Seeking to downplay talk of an escalating
Sino-American rivalry, she told a conference of smaller island nations
where she stopped en route that “…after all, the Pacific is big enough for all of us.”
Her hosts were not convinced. Washington should “stop its role as a
sneaky troublemaker” stirring up tensions between China and its
neighbors, advised an article in the government-run news agency. While
her official welcome was somewhat more cordial, the Secretary of State
achieved no discernable progress on a range of outstanding issues,
including the civil war in Syria and Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
