Hillary Offers China a Bit of Humility in Beijing

如果中国官员此前还在担心美国新任国务卿上任之后首次造访北京会出言指责的话，那么过去这个周末则让他们有些惊喜。美国国务卿希拉里(Hillary)此次并没有像此前访华的一些美国高官那样高谈人权和宗教自由，这令人权活动人士感到沮丧。希拉里转而强调了美中两国在经济和环境问题上的合作。而在环境问题上，希拉里还流露出些许后悔之情。美国国务卿希拉里在北京出席新闻发布会希拉里周日在中国日报网进行视频聊天时说，我们犯了错误。此次聊天是希拉里为期一周亚洲之行的最后几项活动之一。希拉里说，美国曾在上世纪七十年代油价飙升的时候努力实施节能措施，但随着油价回落，又在八十年代忽视了这一方面。在聊天过程中，主持人──一位中国教授代表网民询问希拉里，美国的错误是否是因为其自认为拥有足够的资源，因此永远不需要被迫关注提高能效或采取其他节能措施；希拉里回答说，我们曾以为自己再也不用担心这个问题。（希拉里并没有具体谈到上世纪九十年代她丈夫克林顿总统执政时期的美国能源政策。）勇于坦承错误正成为美国新政府的某种标志，这也是奥巴马所谓美国已进入“负责任时代”的一种体现。总统本人便承认自己在内阁人选方面犯有错误。不过，希拉里的目的显然不是简单的自我批评。中国和美国是全球最大两个温室气体排放国。希拉里已经明确表示，与中国协作应对气候变化是她出任国务卿后的一项重要工作；她也将承认美国的错误视为劝说中国改变行为的一种手段，希拉里此次出访亚洲其他国家时也曾坦承美国的失误。希拉里说，我们不想中国重犯美国的错误。Jason Leow（“中国日志”（China Journal）关注全球第一人口大国的发展变化，《华尔街日报》获奖团队数十位记者倾情献稿，Sky Canaves主笔。欢迎读者发送邮件至[e-mail]或在下面评论栏中发表评论和建议。）相关阅读增进美中关系并非易事 2009-02-23希拉里访华大谈经济 避谈人权 2009-02-23朝鲜接班人存疑 希拉里欲向中国求证 2009-02-20别对希拉里访华寄予太高期望 2009-02-20


If Chinese officials were worried about finger wagging by the new American secretary of state on her inaugural mission to Beijing, they were pleasantly surprised this weekend.Foregoing the emphasis of some previous visiting top U.S. officials on human rights and religious freedom-  to the frustration of rights activists  Clinton instead focused on Sino-American cooperation on economic and environmental issues. And, on the environment, she sounded a note of contrition.“We made a mistake,” the top U.S. diplomat said Sunday in an online video chat with China’s main English-language newspaper, China Daily. Clinton, in one of her final events before concluding a weeklong trip through Asia, said the U.S. had embarked on energy conservation in the 1970s when oil prices shot up, but that it then dropped the ball in the 1980s when oil prices came down.She told her host on the chat, a Chinese professor asking her questions on behalf of Internet users, that America’s error had been thinking it had enough resources to never have to focus on improving fuel efficiency or taking other energy conservation measures. “We thought we didn’t have to worry about [them] any more,” she said. (She didn’t talk specifically about U.S. energy policy in the 1990s, when her husband was president).Owning up to mistakes is becoming something of a trademark of the new U.S. administration   part of what President Barack Obama, who has acknowledged his own blunders on cabinet appointments, has called “an era of responsibility.”Clinton clearly had a goal beyond simple self-criticism, however. China and the U.S. are the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse cases.Clinton has made clear that working with China to address climate change will be one of her major initiatives as secretary-  and sees admitting America’s errors, something she also did elsewhere on her trip, as a way to persuade China to alter its own behavior. “We don’t want you to make the same mistakes that we made,” she said.Jason Leow