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

The White House

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 4, 2008

Roundtable Interview of the President by Foreign Print Media

Roosevelt Room

July 2, 2008

12:46 P.M. EDT

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THE PRESIDENT: Okay.

First of all, I'm looking forward to this. As you know, it's my last G8. These are useful, important meetings because it's a chance to forge common policy, but it's also a chance to have a lot of important bilaterals. And the first bilateral I have is with the Prime Minister. And it's very important for me to make it clear to him and the Japanese people that I value the bilateral relationship with Japan.

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Another great opportunity would be, of course, dealing with the environment. I know this is important for the Prime Minister, and it's important for all nations there. It turns out that energy independence and climate change can go hand in hand. In other words, the technologies that free us from dependence on hydrocarbons will be the very technologies that enable us to improve the environment. The question is how best to expedite new technologies to the market, and frankly, get it in the hands of countries that are going to need these technologies, such as your cross-straits neighbor, China.

My own view is that there will never be an effective agreement unless China and India are at the table. And I say "effective," I mean a results-oriented agreement where, in fact, we actually accomplish an objective, which is reducing greenhouse gases. And so we'll work to set the conditions so that people understand that in order to be effective, all of us who are creating greenhouse gases must agree to long-term goals, and develop effective interim plans.

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Q: Hi, yes. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I'd like to just follow up on the North Korea issue. There is in Japan -- there is concern in Japan that the golden era of the U.S.-Japan alliance has passed, the historical -- (inaudible) -- of alliance is now degrading. So how do you think that, in this context, the removal of North Korea from the list, affects the U.S.-Japan alliance?

THE PRESIDENT: It's interesting. Somebody told me that beginning to creep into the dialogue there is the six-party talks really is -- you know, will undermine the bilateral relations between Japan and the United States. I fully reject that. It's like saying, okay, we're all part of the United Nations, therefore bilateral relations don't matter. Multilateral forums to address an issue strengthens relations, they don't weaken relations.

And the fundamental question is how do you solve the problem of North Korea; that's the question. That's what the six-party talks were aimed to address. The history of this issue was at one point in time it was really only the United States that was dealing with the issue, others were kind of there, but they weren't that -- they basically said, here, go solve it.

And it's an effective way to deal with a problem way diplomatically. In order to solve a problem diplomatically there has to be other voices who say, here's what we expect and, if not, here are the consequences. And that's why it was so important to convince the Chinese, for example, to become a party to the six-party talks.

In the meantime, however, we have been working very closely with Japan on a variety of issues. You notice we're no longer talking about basing issues. Why? Because our bilateral relations were such that we're able to deal with them. We were able to work together in Afghanistan and Iraq. We were able to work together on humanitarian issues in places like Afghanistan. In other words, our bilateral relations have thrived during this period when the six-party talks were constructed.

The only thing I can do is just tell people how I view it, when I go to Japan -- or through objective agents such as yourself. And it is, our relations have been important, they are important and they will be important. And as I said in my opening statement, this really is a cornerstone to our policies in Northeast Asia.

Hiro.

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Q: In the upcoming summit, Prime Minister Fukuda hopes to set a long-term goal for curbing greenhouse gas emission, and I think you share the idea. What goals do you have going into the summit and do you expect to strike an agreement on that?

THE PRESIDENT: I'm hopeful we can strike an agreement. But I caution everybody that such an agreement must have all of us who create greenhouse gases -- not just those of us around the table at the G8. And that's why we worked with the Prime Minister to have this major economies meeting; it was to strengthen the G8, is to make it relevant.

You know, it's an interesting notion that -- I said today in my press availability in the Rose Garden -- I don't know if you were there or not -- you know, I wonder whether or not some of these nations who are creating greenhouse gases -- but considered still developing nations -- are used to the period of Kyoto, when they weren't held to account about what they were producing. I wonder if that's their mind set. Because if it is, it'll make any international agreement ineffective if they're not a part to it, because, you know, it is estimated that -- well, China is creating a lot of greenhouse gases and will continue to do so. And therefore Japan and the United States can maybe make decisions that affect our own production, but it will be ineffective at solving the problem unless China is with us.

And so my hope there is to move the process along so that we, at a very minimum, send a clear message to developing countries that are producing greenhouse gases that we expect you to be a part of an agreement. And step one is a long-term goal. In other words, if you can get nations to commit to a goal, you've got them committed to a process. If, however, the process doesn't matter whether you're a part or not, or you may be a part at some point in time -- in my mind that won't produce the results that are necessary to deal with the global climate change issue.

And so we'll see how that goes. We're working it very hard, as is the Prime Minister and other nations.

The other thing we can do is we can talk about some just practical things we can do, such as insisting that we reduce tariffs and trade barriers on pollution equipment. It makes no sense to make such equipment prohibitively expensive when it is -- when there are some basic technologies that could move and can help. And I will be talking about technologies there, as well. And I told you about some of the technologies dealing with automobiles and, you know, the interesting thing is, is that the world is now beginning to waken up to the beauty of nuclear power.

And, I mean, if one is really concerned about global warming and greenhouse gases, they ought to be carrying signs insisting upon the development of nuclear power plants. This is renewable energy with zero greenhouse gas emissions. And yet the world -- parts of the world are very reluctant about -- even in our country, it's very difficult to build a plant. We've been able to get some regulatory relief through government action. I think four new plants have been permitted or four expansions have been permitted. But we ought to be -- about 25 percent of our electricity comes from nuclear power, and it ought to be a lot higher.

And you know, one of the things that interesting is Japan and the United States are working on technologies to deal with the waste. And that will -- if that -- when that technology comes to fruition, it will ease some people's concerns. There will be some who just simply will never buy into nuclear power; I fully understand that. But this will be a great opportunity to discuss about other things we can do while we're trying to work -- you know, by the way, everything we're going to do is meant to strengthen the United Nations process and not weaken it.

And so, anyway, that's kind of what's on my mind going into the meetings.

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Q: On China?

THE PRESIDENT: China, yes. See how generous I am to give you all these questions?

MS. PERINO: You're ruining the lighting round aspect of it.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, keep moving. (Laughter.)

Q: Actually, I would like to ask you what's your view on current relations between U.S. and China? Because seven years ago, U.S. military plane was forced to land on Hainan Island.

THE PRESIDENT: That's right, yes.

Q: And then, I would like to ask you, then, how you see the evolution of the China-U.S. relationship since then? And also, there is some concern in Japan that future of Asian -- (inaudible) -- U.S. and China will jointly manage the stability and prosperity. How do you see --

THE PRESIDENT: First of all, the cornerstone of U.S. policy is good, strong relations with Japan. So, as far as the Bush administration goes, that has been our policy and we've acted on it. That's not to say we can't have good relations with China, nor Japan can have good relations -- I mean, Japan should have good relations with China. And we expect Japan to work hard to have good relations with Japan, just like Japan ought to hope that we have good relations with China, which we do. Our relations are strong, and some say have never been better. I'll let the experts judge that.

And one reason why is we've managed some difficult issues together. The Taiwan Straits issue is a difficult issue, and it looks like it's in a much better spot. I have worked hard to have a good personal relationship with Hu Jintao, and Jiang Zemin, his predecessor, so I can speak frankly to them.

And my big concerns about China are religious freedoms and individual rights and political freedoms. Every time I've met with the Chinese leader, which has been a lot, I've had a very frank and open dialogue, and yet been able to maintain a good, cordial relationship so we can work through problems. One such problem is no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula. We've got big economic relations with China, as does Japan.

And so I don't view the world as zero sum -- in other words, if you got a good relationship -- strong relationship, you can't have a good relationship with China; quite the contrary. In good foreign policy and good diplomacy, a good relations with one makes it easier to have a better relations with another country. And that's how we've conducted our policy.

China is a very interesting issue for all of us. Right now they're dealing with trying to get their economy such that people in the rural parts of their country are able to benefit. And it's a challenge. And they're using a lot of raw materials. And one reason why it's important for Japan and the United States to help them develop the technologies that make them less dependent upon some of these raw materials that have affected worldwide price of raw materials.

And so it's a -- it will be a very interesting issue for future Presidents, but we've been able to manage it very well.

Kenji.

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1:40 P.M. EDT