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

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
June 30, 2008

12:39 p.m. EDT

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MR. CASEY: Good afternoon, Mr. Lambros. I have two -- actually, people-related issues, as opposed to personnel, but things that I just wanted to take the opportunity to mention today. The first is I know a number of us here, including myself, will be headed over this afternoon to a memorial service for our friend and colleague, Peter Mackler from the associated -- from -- excuse me, from Agence France Press, who passed away suddenly a week ago this past Friday.

Peter was a wonderful individual, a fantastic reporter who did tremendous work, not only for AFP, but on behalf of many journalists who he helped through training programs and other efforts that he did somehow miraculously in what we all know was his copious free time as a wire reporter. Peter was a good friend to all of us. He was someone who did hold for a while the State Department Correspondents Association Presidency and did some good work on behalf of the Association there. And he'll be missed by all of us. And I know the Secretary has spoken to this immediately after his death, but I just wanted to go on record as noting our condolences to his family, to his many friends, and also best wishes for all his colleagues, too. So that's number one.

Number two -- people-related -- is also about a departure of a different sort. I got an e-mail from a gentleman I think most of you know, Ken Bailes, who for many, many years, has been the Bureau of East Asia Pacific Affairs Press Officer and Spokesperson, a individual who has kept me from screwing up talking about Taiwan and North Korea and so many different subjects over the years. You know, Ken basically is the voice of authority on many of these things for many of us who stood at this podium, whether that was Nick Burns, who I know he worked with or -- well, I won't mention Nick's successor, but certainly for the rest of us, we've come to rely on Ken a lot for advice and for making sure that we describe our policies in Asia correctly.

And Ken has announced that after what I think is almost 30 years with the Department of State -- I don't want to age him any further -- that he is going to be retiring as of this Friday. So -- or actually, as of this Thursday, since Friday is a holiday. I just want to say my own personal thanks to Ken for keeping me out of trouble to the best he was capable of doing over these last few years, for all his efforts to keep many, many spokespeople out of trouble over these past few years. And so if you see Ken or talk to him anytime in the next few days, please wish him a happy and healthy retirement. And you can probably, I suspect, catch him singing with the Washington Choral Arts Society and many of the other musical groups that I know have occupied his time and I'm sure will have an opportunity to do so more in the future. So again, thank you for indulging me on a couple of these non-official kinds of statements, but appreciate the opportunity. And since it's Monday, let's see what you've got.

Okay.

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QUESTION: Yeah, change topic to Tibet. Do you have any expectation on the coming talk between Chinese Government and Dalai Lama? And secondly, it was reported that State Department regarded the Lhasa country as the priority to deal with Chinese Government. Can you confirm that?

MR. CASEY: Well, a couple of things. First of all, we continue to support the discussions between the Government of China and the representatives of the Dalai Lama. We think that that kind of dialogue is important for resolving the outstanding issues in Tibet and about Tibet. Obviously, there have been previous rounds of discussions and they have not dealt with successfully all of the issues. But this is the way forward. We would hope that this discussion would advance the cause of a resolution of many of those outstanding issues in Tibet. The Secretary spoke to this a little bit while she was in China as well.

In terms of U.S. embassies and consulates and other kinds of activities, I don't have anything new to offer you on that subject. I'm not aware that there's been any new conversations in that regard, though it certainly has been a matter of discussion.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Did Secretary Rice raise the controversy issue to the Chinese (inaudible)?

MR. CASEY: I honestly don't know. That's -- in terms of what conversations she had about this or any other subjects in Beijing, I'd leave that to her and the party to address for you. I simply haven't a chance to talk with them and get a readout on it.

Nicholas.

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(The briefing was concluded at 1:13 p.m.)