Clinton gets frosty reception in China

Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi

(CBS News) BEIJING – In answer to a question from CBS News as to whether China and the U.S. have come to any agreement on how to end the violence in Syria, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton could only reiterate Wednesday that the U.S. was “disappointed” by China’s blockage of tougher action by the United Nations Security Council.

Standing in the Great Hall of the People with the Chinese Foreign Minister by her side, Clinton called the situation in Syria “a threat to peace and stability in the entire region, and the longer the conflict goes on, the greater the risk that it spills over borders and destabilizes neighboring countries.”

China continues to oppose outside intervention in Syria, along with Russia, but insists it is not taking sides with either “party” in the civil war – President Bashar Assad’s government or the opposition.

Opposition activists say the Assad regime’s brutal tactics in the lopsided war have left more than 20,000 people dead since it began more than 17 months ago.

Clinton said the U.S. and China do not see “eye-to-eye” on human rights issues.

The Communist Party’s flagship paper ran a headline referring to Clinton as a “figure who deeply exacerbates U.S.-China mutual distrust,” while the state-controlled Xinhua news agency ran an article calling for the U.S. to “stop its role as a sneaky troublemaker sitting behind some nations in the region and pulling strings” – a reference to U.S. backing for China’s neighbors in ongoing territorial disputes with Beijing.

 

CBS News has the full article

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