U.S. Relations with the People's Republic of China (2005)

U.S. Department of State

The United States and the OSCE: A Partnership for Advancing Freedom

Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs
Testimony before the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission)
Washington, DC
October 25, 2005

[The hearing was held at 3:00 p.m. in Room 124 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC, Sam Brownback, Chairman, Helsinki Commission, moderating.]

BROWNBACK: Good afternoon. I'm delighted everybody's here. And my apologies for being late. I had another meeting that I was chairing, and I was there. And we just wrapped up.

Today's hearing on the Helsinki Commission is on the U.S. policy toward the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or the OSCE.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

BROWNBACK: And well-practiced in it. I just I would note that there's been concerns by a lot of people, expressed over some period of time, that Russia, simply within the last couple of years, has really not lived up to its commitment not its stature in the world, nor what it should be doing for its own people in moving this forward.

And I think the trend line has been moving pretty clearly in the wrong direction in recent years. And I know the administration is concerned about that and I hope can continue to push it.

I want to ask you about China. Increasingly, we've seen recently that voracious appetite for natural resources, raw resources, by China, and seemingly driving a fair amount of foreign policy decisions by China just simply based upon the desire, the greater consumption need for natural resources.

Do you see that having an impact in the region of South Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia, this great Chinese drive for additional raw resources?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRIED: I see it differently in different places. In the South Caucasus, China is not or has not yet been as large a factor as it may be in Central Asia. And we have to look still differently on the Chinese presence in Eastern Siberia.

I think that China is interested in Russian energy resources. It is interested in Central Asia. China has been increasingly its presence and profile worldwide. I'm not an expert on China. It's beyond my field of expertise.

I'll just say it's certainly in our interest that China's emergence take place in a way that is consistent with international norms, the rule of law, and in a way that is compatible with our own interests and the interests of our friends.

When I was in Central Asia, it was clear to me that the leaders who think most strategically about the future of their region see a challenge of establish -- one of the challenges has been the establishment of sovereignty, considering their neighborhood.

As they put it, we have some very big neighbors. To the north, to the east, there is some problems to the south, and we are far away from you and far away from Europe.

They are looking for ways to strengthen their sovereignty. My advice to my Central Asian friends was that economic reform and political reform actually does strengthen your sovereignty, because a strong, well-run, successful state has no need of outside patrons because it generates support from within.

And the greater the sovereignty of a given country, the greater its ability to handle challenges from larger neighbors.

BROWNBACK: I think that's wise advice. I just would add to it that my experience and observation of China, and particularly in Africa is where I've seen the most impact, is it will do whatever it needs to and work with whoever to drive the natural resources.

And it can work with some pretty bad actors in a lot of places without much concern at all for human rights, democracy, individual freedoms, trafficking, militant Islam. It's kind of agnostic, apolitical on all of the above, but will desire to try to get as much as it can, in a way of a natural resource basis into places, that it's something for us to push back against aggressively, if it's being done in a harmful way to the whole world.

I have no problem competing for natural resources, but I do if it's done on the basis of -- we support a terrorist regime as a way of getting that, or that they move into a place -- Uzbekistan has less in the way of oil resources, but it has other natural resources, that a China moves in there simply because Uzbekistan has been a bad actor and now here's an opportunity.

I think that's something we should pushing back aggressively in the region and against the Chinese on, which is another portfolio than yours.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRIED: I do agree that an American presence in the region, whether it is economic, or military, or political, in support of reforms, can be very useful for these countries as they are finding their way. We want good partners in the region with whom we can work on a common agenda.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

[Whereupon the hearing ended at 4:03 p.m.]