U.S. and Hong Kong (2007)

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
November 29, 2007

12:38 p.m. EST

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: (Inaudible) Iraq. Do you have any comment on the claims by Beijing that the cancellation of the visit to Hong Kong was not a misunderstanding and linking it to the Dalai Lama?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, I know. Yeah, I saw that. I know Dana addressed that over at the White House and I wouldn't really have much more to add than what she did, that we're seeking clarification of that -- that statement.

QUESTION: Do you know why the Foreign Minister -- or why the White House would say that the Foreign Minister claims it's a misunderstanding and then the next day the Foreign Ministry would say it's not --

MR. MCCORMACK: Because I would assume that the White House said that because that's what they heard, and that if there was any reports to the contrary coming out of the Chinese Foreign Ministry that they're seeking clarification about those subsequent comments that have come in out of -- come out of the Foreign Ministry. And I understand -- I know that the White House is handling that.

QUESTION: What about the linking of it with the award to the Dalai Lama? That would seem to be indicative that they're still holding a grudge.

MR. MCCORMACK: Like I said, we're seeking clarification on the subsequent statements that they've made in public.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) spill over into other U.S.-China relations?

MR. MCCORMACK: Look, the U.S.-China relationship is a broad, mature, deep relationship that is constantly evolving, changing, and in some ways getting better and in some way -- in some areas we have differences. But it is fundamentally a relationship between two important world powers, so where we have bumps in the road we work through them. We deal with each other in a straightforward manner. Where we have questions, we raise them. We're not afraid to raise them. As Dana indicated just this morning, we're going to seek clarification.

QUESTION: Have there been any other bumps that we haven't heard about? (Laughter.)

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, none that I'm going to tell you about. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Sean, the White House is seeking clarification on this?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, yeah.

QUESTION: From whom?

MR. MCCORMACK: It's a White House meeting.

QUESTION: In other words, is the President --

MR. MCCORMACK: The meeting in question was a meeting between the Foreign Minister and the President. I think it's appropriate that the White House follow up on it. Yeah.

QUESTION: Well, where are they seeking clarification from? Why isn't it the Embassy in Beijing that's doing this?

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't -- why wouldn't it?

QUESTION: Well, I don't know. Is the First Lady going to be seeking the clarification? Who is seeking it? Is it the President?

MR. MCCORMACK: No --

QUESTION: Is he calling up the Chinese President to say --

MR. MCCORMACK: That's silly.

QUESTION: No --

MR. MCCORMACK: That's silly, Matt.

QUESTION: Sean, I mean, the diplomatic discourse of this country is generally done between, you know --

MR. MCCORMACK: Not in absolute -- no, Matt.

QUESTION: So --

MR. MCCORMACK: No, that's incorrect. The White House actually engages in quite a bit of diplomacy. The President does quite a bit himself. You have his National Security Advisor who does quite a bit himself. You have his Deputy National Security Advisor who does quite a bit himself. You have the Vice President who does quite a bit of it himself. So there's actually -- yes, we are the body responsible for foreign policy making, and I would say probably a large portion of the diplomatic discourse emanates from the State Department and is received by the State Department. But it is not correct to say that we have the -- we have exclusive rights to that domain.

QUESTION: Well, then have they told you who exactly is -- who is being -- who is the White House seeking the clarification from? From the Embassy here? From the Foreign Ministry?

MR. MCCORMACK: Talk to our friends at the White House about that. It's their deal.

QUESTION: Could this be a translation problem? I mean, is there a transcript of --

MR. MCCORMACK: I think, again, any further follow-up is going to come from my pals at the White House.

Yeah.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

(The briefing was concluded at 1:16 p.m.)