U.S. Relations with the People's Republic of China (2006)

U.S. Department of State

Interview With Derwin Pereira of the Singapore Straits Times

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
November 8, 2006

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QUESTION: Madame Secretary, is Iraq forcing America to pay less attention to other world issues including the rights of China.

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, no. In fact, Iraq is very important but it is a part of a broad foreign policy set of issues. You can go around the world and look at American engagement on any number of issues. We are going to be going, of course, to APEC where we have strong relations and strong ties with our Asian allies. I was just in Asia in the wake of the North Korea nuclear test. Now, we are about to go back to the six-party talks, meaning that we are dealing with that problem. We, of course, are dealing also with the Iranian proliferation issue. So we are dealing with a lot of challenges in the Middle East, in proliferation, but we also have a very positive agenda. This President has been very active in free trade. We have many free trade agreements that we have signed including, in fact, with Singapore. We've got the Doha Round that we're pursuing actively. We've been one of the most active partners in the Doha Round. So we are determined to support and press for free trade because it is the best opportunity for prosperity for the United States and also for the rest of the world.

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QUESTION: Madame Secretary, Beijing is rapidly making friends in Africa and Asia. They're signing deals. I think Hu Jintao is making another round of trips to Asian countries. What do you think of China's growing power and influence in the world and how is the U.S. dealing with it?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I don't see any of this as zero sum. I'd like to have China have friends in the world. It's better than having China have enemies in the world. You know there have been times when we worried about the opposite; that China would be a destabilizing factor in the world. So I would rather see a China that is trying to reach out, that's trying to have friendships around the world. We have excellent relations with China. We are working on a number of issues together.

Now, China has to be responsible in its engagement with the world because it is a big power. It's not just a developing country. Yes, it has some aspects of being a developing country, but it's a big power with lots of influence. And so we say that it needs to be a responsible stakeholder, meaning that it needs to take its responsibility for issues like North Korea, for issues like Iran. It needs to take responsibility in Africa not just to seek resources but also to contribute to the development of Africa and so that people's lives are better. But a China that is responsible and active in the world would be I think of great benefit to international peace and security.

QUESTION: There are some voices in this country that think that China might not emerge as benevolent power. What is your response to that?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it is partly the responsibility of countries like the United States and China's neighbors and institutions like APEC to create conditions in which China will be a positive force in international politics. There are some aspects of China's external policies that are not very positive. We've had --

QUESTION: Such as?

SECRETARY RICE: -- difficulties on intellectual property rights. We continue to work on this problem, but this is a problem. We are concerned, as many of China's neighbors are, about what sometimes seems an outsized military buildup of Chinese forces. China, of course, needs also in terms of its own domestic transition to respond to the natural desires of people for human rights and for religious freedom. So there are -- China's a country in transition and there are a lot of aspects of Chinese development that are not yet settled. But I think on the whole the relationship that President Bush has established with the Chinese leadership has been positive, positive for the world.

I was very glad to see the visit of Prime Minister Abe to China just very recently, because we would like to see a better development – development of better relations between China and Japan as a part of getting a more peaceful Northeast Asia and set of relationships between those neighbors.

QUESTION: At the same time the United States is also trying to build alliances in --

SECRETARY RICE: We have them. The United States has these alliances. We have an excellent alliance with Japan, an excellent relationship with and alliance with South Korea.

We have good friends throughout Southeast Asia. We have nothing to fear from an active China as long as it is operating within the rules of international trade, within the rules of international policy.

QUESTION: Now the U.S. has said that a nuclear North Korea is unacceptable, but can you stop it?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, not only the United States has said that it is unacceptable, so has China and Japan and South Korea and Russia and others and now the entire international community with Resolution 1718. Yes, I think we can stop it. I think that international community, when it speaks with the kind of resolve that it did with Resolution 1718, can help create the conditions in which then diplomacy can lead to a good outcome. We are very much looking for the resumption of the six-party talks but the talks have to lead somewhere. You can't just continue to talk. We have a coalition of states that are really dedicated to that and that's very important.

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2006/1022

Released on November 9, 2006