Defense Secretary Gates’ Miserable Mission to China

Analysis: Stealth flight sparks China politics guessing game
Beijing (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates' call for China's Military to communicate better with its civilian leaders underscores the policy disconnect in Beijing and raises questions over who really wields control in China. Beijing confirmed this week it had held its first test flight of the J-20 stealth fighter jet, surprising many in the international community who had underestimated China's ability to develop technology to one day rival the United States. Was the timing of the launc...

Defense Secretary Minimizes Chinese Military Threat
Defense secretary B0b Gates was visiting China this week for the first time in SIX YEARS, and he is surprised that the Chinese are rolling out a stealth fighter that wasn’t expected until 2020??? If you are clueless about something as important as this, Bob,  what ELSE don’t you know? This bravado is what the Chinese DO.   And it was stunning to see a jet fighter flying around that our government didn’t acknowledge until this week. For the record, President ...

Clinton says U.S. and China at critical juncture
In a Speech at the State Department, Clinton said the United States does not view China's rise as a threat and is not interested in constraining Beijing's growth. Clinton's remarks follow a week of China policy speeches by U.S. cabinet officials -- and a trip to Beijing by Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- aimed at setting the tone for President Barack Obama's January 19 summit with President Hu Jintao. Some U.S. analysts see Hu's trip as the most important state visit in 30 years, as the leade...

Gates concerned about North Korean threats
TOKYO, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he is concerned about increased threats from North Korea and the modernization of China's Military. Gates, speaking at Keio University in Tokyo Friday, said he wants to strengthen the U.S. alliance with Japan and keep U.S. forces strong in the Pacific, the U.S. Department of Defense said. The defense secretary said there are signs of a "disconnect" between Chinese civilian and military leaders. Gates was in Beijing earlier this wee...

Analysis: Stealth flight sparks China politics guessing game
BEIJING (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates' call for China's Military to communicate better with its civilian leaders underscores the policy disconnect in Beijing and raises questions over who really wields control in China. Beijing confirmed this week it had held its first test flight of the J-20 stealth fighter jet, surprising many in the international community who had underestimated China's ability to develop technology to one day rival the United States. Was the timing of the launch...

Reality in U.S.-China Relations
The events of the past year seem to have led the United States to adopt a harder-eyed approach with China. Advancing cooperation is still the order of the day, but the run-up to Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States has been characterized by an unusually frank set of speeches and commentaries by senior U.S. officials that highlight the systemic challenges of the relationship. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called pointedly for China to live up to its commitment to uni...

Gates: U.S. troops needed in Japan to keep China, North Korea in check
Tokyo –- The U.S. needs Troops in Japan for the long term to keep China’s rising power in check and contain North Korea’s aggressive nuclear and missile aspirations, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, even as the U.S. begins considering a future with smaller, more affordable Military. “On account of the scope, complexity and lethality of these challenges, I would argue that our alliance is more necessary, more relevant and more important than ever,” Gates said F...

Gates: US troops help keep NKorea, China at bay
TOKYO -- North Korea is less able to invade South Korea now than it was a decade or more ago but has become a more lethal threat to Asia and the world, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday. "The character and priorities of the North Korean regime sadly have not changed," Gates said as he neared the close of a weeklong tour of North Asian capitals worried that Pyongyang might start a new war on the Korean Peninsula. "North Korea's ability to launch another conventional ground invasion...

Gates: NKorea must show good faith for new talks (AP)
Seoul, South Korea – New international disarmament talks with North Korea are possible only if the North backs off recent aggression against South Korea and demonstrates it is willing to bargain in good faith, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday. Gates said Diplomacy is worthwhile, starting with direct talks between the North and South. South Korea has rejected new talks for now, reflecting intense anger and impatience over North Korean attacks. Gates attached no conditions t...

What's China Got Up Its Sleeve?
Jan. 11: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, left, listens to Chinese President Hu Jintao during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Chinese President Hu Jintao will be in Washington next week for a summit meeting meant to cap his career as president. It also marks the 40th anniversary of Henry Kissinger’s secret trip to China, the visit that opened the door to U.S.-Chinese relations. The summit’s goal is to continue and build on that dialogue to chart a path for goi...

2ND LD: U.S., S. Korea defense chiefs urge N. Korea to abandon nukes, provocations+
provocations+ (AP) - Seoul, Jan. 14 (Kyodo)—(EDS: UPDATING WITH GATES' MEETING WITH S. KOREAN PRESIDENT) U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan Jin on Friday jointly called on North Korea to demonstrate its willingness to abandon Nuclear Weapons and halt Military provocations. In a statement issued at the end of their talks in Seoul, Gates and Kim "strongly urged North Korea to sincerely show a clear intent and concrete actions that it will abandon ...

Clinton says U.S. and China at critical juncture
WASHINGTON | Fri Jan 14, 2011 10:22am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and China have reached a critical juncture in their relationship and must work to establish more effective cooperation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday. In a Speech at the State Department, Clinton said the United States does not view China's rise as a threat and is not interested in constraining Beijing's growth. Clinton's remarks follow a week of China policy speeches by U.S. cabinet officia...

Gates: US troops help keep NKorea, China at bay
TOKYO (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says North Korea is less able to invade South Korea now than it was a decade or more ago. But the Pentagon chief says that the erratic government in the North has still become a greater danger to its neighbor and the rest of the world during that time. He points to Nuclear Weapons and new missiles the North could use to deliver them. Gates is wrapping up an Asian tour dominated by worry over North Korea’s next move. He’s asking J...

Gates: US troops help keep NKorea, China at bay (AP)
Tokyo – North Korea is less able to invade South Korea now than it was a decade or more ago but has become a more lethal threat to Asia and the world, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday. "The character and priorities of the North Korean regime sadly have not changed," Gates said as he neared the close of a weeklong tour of North Asian capitals worried that Pyongyang might start a new war on the Korean Peninsula. "North Korea's ability to launch another conventional ground in...

Is the Obama administration prepping another arms sale to Taiwan?
The U.S. policy of supporting Taiwan through sales of U.S. weapons is the biggest irritant in the increasingly complicated U.S.-China relationship. This week, just before Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington, a potential new round of arms sales to Taiwan threatens to overshadow the Obama-Hu summit. Following the January 2010 sale of $6.4 billion of weapons to Taiwan, the Chinese cut off Military-to-military relations with Washington. These relations were only restored this week d...

Clinton urges China 'real action'
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said US-China relations have reached a critical point and the two must work together more effectively. "It is up to both nations to translate the high-level pledges of summits and state visits into action" on trade and other issues, she said in Washington. Hu Jintao is to meet President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday. "America and China have arrived at a critical juncture, a time when the choices we make - big and small - wil...

Clinton urges China to improve human rights
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday urged China to release Dissidents including Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo, saying that Human Rights problems showed Beijing's "unfulfilled promise." In a wide-ranging Speech ahead of President Hu Jintao's state visit to the United States next week, Clinton was unusually forthright in her calls for China to improve human rights, which she called "universal." "A vibrant civil society would help address some of China's most pressing issues, from food sa...

Banyan: The importance of being insincere
This is cheering compared with acts of war, but it scarcely provides grounds for optimism, for a very simple reason: it is hard to find anyone who believes North Korea has any intention of relinquishing its inchoate Nuclear Arsenal. And since America is never going to accept North Korea as a Nuclear Power, six-party talks seem pointless and doomed. Why would North Korea disarm? Its nukes serve it well. They are a strategic deterrent, especially if—as Robert Gates, America’s defence s...

Gates warns of North Korea threat
Viewpoint: New Sino-US Arms Race? North Korea poses an increasingly potent threat to the region and the world, the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said. He also said there were signs of a "disconnect" between the civilian and Military leaderships in China. But he insisted the Chinese President Hu Jintao was firmly in charge. Mr Hu is to visit Washington next week. Mr Gates has now arrived in South Korea. "The character and priorities of the North Korean regime sadly have no...

Ex-US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused of torture
Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld A US rights group has filed a Lawsuit charging former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with involvement in torturing former Prisoners in American Prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) catapulted the Torture case into prominence on Thursday after it lodged an appeal to a court in the District of Columbia, alleging that Rumsfeld and some senior US Military officials were quite aware of a Torture case involvi...

U.S. again urges North Korea to meet its obligations
By Phil Stewart Seoul | Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:42am EST Seoul (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday held out the possibility of a resumption of six-party talks if North Korea ceases provocations and meets international obligations, but said there no was sign of it changing its ways. Gates was wrapping up a five-day visit to Northeast Asia with talks in Seoul to discuss ways to respond to Pyongyang's "belligerence" last year which drove tensions to their highest level in years....

Gates Says North Korea Must Show Good Faith for New Talks
Friday, January 14, 2011 By Anne Gearan, Associated Press U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin at the Defense Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday, Jan. 14, 2011. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man, Pool) Seoul, South Korea (AP) - New international disarmament talks with North Korea are possible only if the North backs off recent aggression against South Korea and demonstrates it is willing to bargain in good faith, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates ...

Gates: North Korea is Lethal Threat to Asia and World
TOKYO - North Korea is less able to invade South Korea now than it was a decade or more ago but has become a more lethal threat to Asia and the world, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday. "The character and priorities of the North Korean regime have sadly not changed," Gates said as he neared the close of a weeklong tour of North Asian capitals worried that Pyongyang might start a new war on the Korean Peninsula. "North Korea's ability to launch another conventional ground inva...

Gates drops hard line on unpopular US Okinawa base
TOKYO - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Thursday for Japan's help in heading off a crisis with North Korea, while easing U.S. pressure on its Asian ally over the huge American Military bases on its territory. South Korea would be within its rights to retaliate if North Korea mounts an attack, Gates said, but the United States, Japan, South Korea and China should try to prevent North Korean from provoking a war. "The objective that we all have in common is how do we prevent anothe...

Gates says U.S.-N. Korea 'diplomatic engagement' possible+
SEOUL, Jan. 14 (AP) - (Kyodo)—U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday diplomatic engagement with North Korea is "possible," according to Yonhap News Agency. "With regard to next steps on North Korea, diplomatic engagement is possible, starting with direct engagement with DPRK and the South," Gates told South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan Jin as they started talks in Seoul, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In recent days, ...