U.S. and Hong Kong (2004)

State Department Noon Briefing, May 28

State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher briefed reporters May 28.

Following is the transcript of the State Department briefing:

(begin transcript)

U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing
Friday, May 28, 2004
12:35 p.m. EDT

BRIEFER: Richard Boucher, Spokesman

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Okay. On that? I wonder, we did hear the Secretary this morning. I wonder if I could pursue with you whether there is a difference on peacekeeping troops in Iraq between the U.S.-British proposal and what the Chinese -- now you say it's not a proposal, but what the Chinese and others, to use his words, are suggesting. I mean, when he went over the ground, he said that the troops are there with the consent of the Iraqi government. Nobody questions that.

I just need, please, to understand whether the U.S. is saying and he is saying that our position and the others' position is just about identical, because it strikes me the others want to end the lease, so to speak, when the elections are held, for instance -- because I haven't seen their proposal.

Are they the same on the troops or is there a difference worth talking about?

MR. BOUCHER: Is this the same or different than a proposal that you haven't seen and that the Secretary said we haven't really seen a concrete proposal? We know Chinese ideas that the Chinese had before they received our resolution, and they shared those with us and some others.

What the Chinese position is on so-called mandate, at this point, you'll have to ask the Chinese. Maybe they can define it for you and then you can compare and contrast. Our position is quite clear. It's expressed in the resolution. We've done our briefings here. We've made clear that we don't think that you can end the security assistance to the Iraqi government at an arbitrary date, but rather that you have to be able to fulfill the mission of providing security for the Iraqis, to put the Iraqis in a position to maintain their own security.

And the fundamental of saying we're establishing a, as the President just said, a complete and fully sovereign Iraqi government, the fundamental, how can I say, aspect of that, is that they are the people who are going to decide. They are the people whose consent is needed for whatever happens in Iraq and they are the people who are going to decide how long they need that security assistance.

QUESTION: That helps. You want to talk on -- ask about that?

QUESTION: Well, specifically about this and specifically about the expert meeting that was yesterday, because you -- I know you spoke to this exact issue at length yesterday in the briefing --

MR. BOUCHER: Yes, I did.

QUESTION: -- but that was before the experts meeting, and I'm just wondering if, out of that meeting, your understanding is that anyone's position on this has changed. And I just want to make sure that I have -- you do acknowledge, right, that in the Chinese non-paper, non-proposal that they gave to you before you gave them the resolution that it does suggest a January 2005 cutoff for the mandate. You are acknowledging it, right?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not trying to brief or change the Chinese non-paper --

QUESTION: I'm know, I'm not --

MR. BOUCHER: I just told your colleague I don't know what the Chinese position is right now. It's for them to express.

QUESTION: But you are aware that that was their suggestion in --

MR. BOUCHER: I'm aware that that was their idea.

QUESTION: Okay. And do you have any reason to believe, since the experts level meeting, or since they got your proposal and since this -- the meeting, the counsel meeting and then the experts level meeting, that that position has changed, or that suggestion has changed.

MR. BOUCHER: I have no idea. I have no idea.

QUESTION: You don't know. Okay.

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know. I'm not the Chinese spokesman. I didn't check with the Chinese this morning on their position.

QUESTION: Okay, well, then, you know --

MR. BOUCHER: There was an expert meeting yesterday. The experts are reconvening again this morning, so they're continuing their discussions of various technical aspects of the text. I'm told that we have received some proposals, a few changes were proposed at yesterday's meeting. And we'll be going over that and working with them, as the Secretary indicated we would.

QUESTION: Did any of those relate to the specific mandate?

MR. BOUCHER: I don't know.

QUESTION: Okay.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: Richard, you've put out in the last day or so a notice about the Chinese reported crackdown on dissidents, and there's the anniversary of Tiananmen Square about a decade -- a little over a decade ago. And there's going to be a march, one of the marches, in Hong Kong on Sunday, and Beijing says no.

What is your reaction to that?

MR. BOUCHER: I hadn't seen Beijing saying no.

QUESTION: Well --

MR. BOUCHER: We have always believed that freedom of expression for the people of Hong Kong was an important part of the Basic Law, and we'd certainly want to uphold that and for the Hong Kong people to be able to exercise the rights that they do have.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. BOUCHER: Thank you.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:10 p.m.)

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