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

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
April 4, 2008

12:53 p.m. EDT

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QUESTION: Can you give us what you have on the U.S.-North Korean talks for next week, please?

MR. CASEY: Oh, well, where in the world is Chris Hill? Let's see what we can do for you there. I apologize. There was some confusion this morning about the exact timing of his visit. So let me give you a dramatic reading of what I've got here from EAP and we'll see if we can clarify it for you.

First of all, I think everyone knows that Chris met today in Jakarta with a variety of officials, including President Yudhoyono and had some discussions about bilateral issues there. He then returned to Bali, where he's been attending the Asia Society's Williamsburg Conference. Now he's going to leave Bali on Sunday -- that's this Sunday, April 6th -- and go to Timor-Leste, as previously scheduled, for some bilateral meetings there. And then he will depart Dili on Monday, April 7th and will arrive in Singapore on the evening of April 7th. He'll meet with Singaporean officials on Monday evening and then -- you thought I'd never get to it -- on Tuesday the 8th, he will then have a meeting with Kim Kye Gwan, his counterpart, in -- North Korean counterpart in the Six-Party talks. This meeting, again, is, as I said this morning, a follow-up on the discussions that were held in Geneva last month.

He's then expected to leave Singapore on the morning of Wednesday, April 9th and -- and this is in addition to what I told you this morning -- we now do have an additional stop for him, so he'll be going to Beijing later that day on the 9th and have discussions with Chinese officials there. I'm sure that will include a variety of topics, including some bilateral ones, but I'm sure he'll also use that as an opportunity to provide a readout of the discussions that he will have had previously with Kim Kye Gwan. And then he'll be leaving Beijing the evening of April 8th* and arriving, again, that same -- that same evening back here in Washington.

So, you know, you can start notifying your correspondents in all of those locations to start stalking him at the usual hotels and places and times so that he can have an opportunity to tell you himself about how any of these conversations have gone.

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QUESTION: Do you have any position - does the U.S. Government have any position on the Tibetan request to avoid having the torch, the Olympic torch, pass through Tibet? There was a Tibetan envoy in Congress yesterday making that request.

MR. CASEY: I'll check for you and see. As far as I know, there's no formal U.S. Government position on that. You know, our views on the Olympics and the role of the Olympics in China, I think, are pretty well known. And in terms of the ceremonial aspects of it, the President's articulated his view. We've also said repeatedly that with the arrival of the Olympics, China will be in the international eye and under international spotlight in a way that it hadn't been previously. And we would hope that they would use that as an opportunity to put their best face forward to the world. Certainly, we have seen actions, including those in Tibet, as well as some of the things we've discussed, including the sentencing of Hu Jia and other activists that have gone on, that are very much counter to what we think we'd like to see the Chinese do.

QUESTION: Have you had any more access to Tibet? There was an official trip that --

MR. CASEY: There was a trip that was sponsored by the Chinese Government. One of the individuals who is responsible for handling Tibet affairs in our political section of our Embassy was on that trip. They were allowed to see only those things that the government allowed them to see. We certainly don't consider that the equivalent or of meeting the request that we had made for an opportunity for our officials to freely visit the area. So I don't think that the assessment or the views that we got there really gave us a full picture of what has been going on there. And certainly, we would like to be able to have that opportunity.

QUESTION: Was it helpful in any way?

MR. CASEY: Well, I certainly think it was helpful to be able to have the opportunity to at least see something of what was going on there. I just want to stress that something in which access was very tightly controlled by the government certainly didn't provide us with a full picture.

QUESTION: And no further chance at access?

MR. CASEY: There -- we continue to ask for those opportunities, but at this point, there's been nothing new granted by the Chinese Government that I'm aware of.

Yeah.

QUESTION: But that same envoy was asking or urging the U.S. to establish a permanent and diplomatic posting in Lhasa. Is that something that you were in talks with the Chinese -- or is it something that could happen?

MR. CASEY: I'm not aware as to whether there's ever been any discussions about that or not.

Yeah. Let's go -- Samir.

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(The briefing was concluded at 1:20 p.m.)