U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
March 20, 2008

12:40 p.m. EDT

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QUESTION: Yeah, you told us this morning that the Secretary had called the Chinese Foreign Minister and asked for restraint in actions against the Tibetans.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: Well, you know, are there any other approaches you are entertaining or have taken? Because the repression, if that's what it is, and I think it is, is proceeding, is growing stronger.

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, just to repeat for you from the briefing, the Secretary did speak with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang last night our time, about 8:15 or so. The call lasted about 20 minutes. And I'm not going to get into all the details of the phone call, but she reiterated our call for restraint on the part of the Chinese Government when they're dealing with protestors in these areas. Violence doesn't serve anybody's purposes. And she also underlined our call for the Chinese Government to enter into a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, as well as to respect the multiethnic composition of the Chinese state and to work to expand basic rights and freedoms for all Chinese citizens.

QUESTION: Well, speaking -- I'm sorry.

QUESTION: The day before yesterday, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that the Chinese would be willing to engage with the Dalai Lama with certain conditions. After this phone call with the Chinese counterpart, do you have the same feeling that maybe that it would be possible that the Chinese could engage with the Dalai Lama?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I'll leave it to the British to characterize their phone call -- the Prime Minister's phone call with the Chinese. I'll let the Chinese characterize their views on engagement with the Dalai Lama. I can give you a general description of our side of the phone call. I'll let them describe their side of the phone call. I can only reiterate what the Secretary has said in public, what President Bush has said in public as recently as this past October when he attended the Gold Medal ceremony for the Dalai Lama up in Congress, and that is the Chinese Government should engage with the Dalai Lama in a dialogue. He is a man of peace. He is a man of reconciliation. As for the Chinese views, I'll let them describe that -- those views for themselves.

QUESTION: But are you hopeful it could happen?

MR. MCCORMACK: Look, you know, we've been calling for this for some time. Certainly, now would be as appropriate a time as ever for that dialogue to take place. Again, I reiterate, we believe he is a man of peace, he is a man of reconciliation, and one whom the Chinese Government can have a dialogue with.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Going back to what you said earlier about our urging the Chinese to respect the multiethnic nature of the Chinese state --

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- and you know, the rights of people, this morning, you didn't have a comment on the arrest of dozens of people allegedly involved in the protests in Tibet. Do you feel that this was an appropriate step by the Chinese authorities, or do you think that in arresting so many people, they are perhaps violating the rights of people who were protesting?

MR. MCCORMACK: I can't comment on the specific reports just because we ourselves don't have access to the facts. Now, we have requested access to those areas, including Lhasa, so that we can have our own on-the-ground assessment of what has happened and what is ongoing. Absent access to those kinds of facts, I can't offer a definitive response to these kinds of reports. Now, I'm not trying to call into question the reports. I'm just saying that we can't -- I can't give you a response to that. I don't -- I can't tell you to what the Chinese Government was reacting exactly in terms of particular incidents, and I can't -- I don't have -- we don't have a clear sense of how the Chinese Government has reacted to specific and particular incidences. That is why our Embassy has underscored the importance of allowing access to these areas just so we, as well as others, can have a clearer understanding of exactly what has happened and what is going on in those areas.

QUESTION: And the Chinese Government has consistently rejected your requests or has not responded or --

MR. MCCORMACK: I'll just put it this way. Thus far, they have not been granted.

QUESTION: And one other thing. You, this morning, used slightly stronger language when you talked about urging -- I mean, you said that she strongly urged --

MR. MCCORMACK: Strongly urged. I'm not trying to back away from it. She strongly urged the Chinese Government to exercise restraint in dealing --

QUESTION: In the phone call?

MR. MCCORMACK: In the phone call, yes. Yeah, thank you for that.

Charley.

QUESTION: As a follow-on to the call, what else can the United States do to impress this upon the Chinese?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, you know, all we can do, Charley, is appeal to the Chinese Government to deal with this matter in an appropriate manner. At this point, I don't have any other announcements in terms of actions the U.S. Government is considering or is taking. But at this point, we are at the point, for the past several days, where we have been urging restraint, urging all parties to turn away from any use of violence and to start a dialogue so that you can move beyond this very difficult, very difficult time.

QUESTION: Can I follow up on that? There's something --

MR. MCCORMACK: Sure.

QUESTION: -- that perplexes me.

MR. MCCORMACK: No, no, please.

QUESTION: I mean, the thing that perplexes me is you keep talking about all -- calling on all parties to, you know, exercise restraint and not resort to violence and you said violence serves nobody's purposes. Are you -- even though you don't have American diplomats on the ground who are able to tell you what's going on there, are you implicitly trying to say that the Chinese authorities are -- you know, are using -- are behaving violently or using excessive force in dealing with the protestors?

MR. MCCORMACK: Arshad, I mean, you know, we just don't know. I'm not trying to imply anything at this point. We have all seen the news reports. And again, I can't -- I'm not in a position to call any of those news reports into question, whether or not they're reported in context or any of the details surrounding them. I'm not trying to call into question. We have seen previous instances, if you look in -- look throughout history, where Chinese officials have used -- in this particular area in Tibet, they have used force. I think you can look at

your news reports going back -- you know, going back some time. So again, it is natural, and when you have incidents like this, to urge the governments, in this case China, to exercise restraint when dealing with protestors.

QUESTION: Have you been monitoring independently military traffic heading to Lhasa, Tibet? Are you able to witness any of the big military buildup that apparently is going on there?

MR. MCCORMACK: I couldn't say, Lachlan. You know, certainly, we have many capabilities to monitor a lot of different events going on around the world, but I'm not at liberty really to talk about what it is we may be doing at any particular time in terms of monitoring those kinds of events. I can say that our Embassy has requested access to those areas, and thus far that access has not yet been granted.

Nicholas.

QUESTION: Does that mean, Sean, yes, there is no access, but does the Embassy have any sources of any kind in Tibet? Do they keep in touch regularly, even, you know, without violence or anything like that, do you know?

MR. MCCORMACK: You have -- I don't know recently, but I know in the early days of this, that you have -- that we did have people calling in to the Embassy from various places. I can't tell you whether they were calling in from Lhasa or elsewhere in China. But naturally, our Embassy has, as part of their job, establishing contacts with members of the society that they're dealing with, in civil society and other places throughout the government to try to provide as good a picture as they possibly can of what's going on in the country at a given point in time. So they're making every effort to do so. I think their abilities to collect information, especially in Lhasa and the surrounding areas, are probably -- are limited. They are limited just because of some of the restrictions on travel to those areas. So they're doing the best they can in order to actively go out as well as to collect any information that may be volunteered coming in.

QUESTION: And the other thing was that you've followed the European press some. It's been in the past few days very, very critical of China. And as you know, the EU foreign ministers are supposed to take up the issue of possibly boycotting the opening ceremony at the Olympics. Did the Secretary tell the Foreign Minister that the United States is not going to support any kind of boycott of the Olympics?

MR. MCCORMACK: I would just reiterate what the President said about the Olympics, that we view this as a significant international sporting event; we are going to treat it as such. And we would also encourage China to make use of the fact that the world is watching the Olympics and this important international event to put its best face forward, not only during the Olympics but in the run-up to as well as after the Olympics.

QUESTION: A follow-up?

MR. MCCORMACK: Anything else on this? Yeah.

QUESTION: The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman appeared to rule out talks with the Dalai Lama today, saying that while he appears -- while he says he's not a separatist, his words and deeds show he has never stopped his work to try to split Tibet from the rest of China. Do you have any response to that?

MR. MCCORMACK: Look, you've heard what I have had to say about how we view the Dalai Lama. We would continue to urge China to enter into dialogue with him, and you can look back at the transcripts. And I referred to most -- to the President's words about the Dalai Lama, some extended remarks from this past fall, and those still stand.

Anything else on this? Lambros.

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(The briefing was concluded at 1:02 p.m.)