Problem for US Diplomats: China's Military in Action ModeJuly 8, 2014
Summary
By Gordon Chang
The Obama Administration's focus on "engagement" has failed to deter an increasingly belligerent China, as Beijing's top party leaders pay more attention to their increasingly powerful, but divided military.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry will be the latest American diplomat to try to talk China out of its aggressive behavior when he leads a delegation comprised of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and hundreds of American officials to Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday for the sixth annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. His predecessor, Hillary Rodham Clinton, sat through four annual dialogues and, in her memoirs “Hard Choices,” complained about the tedious talks, the “hours of presentations and discussions, asking questions and raising concerns.”