In which we scour the transcript of the State
Department's daily presser so you don't have to. These are the highlights of
Tuesday's special briefing by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and
Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and Senior Coordinator for China Affairs
at the Department of Treasury David
Loevinger:
In her first stop in Japan, Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton will meet
with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada
and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama,
including a visit to Hatoyama's residence. Okinawa
basing issues are sure to come up. Clinton is looking forward to hearing "quite
clearly from them about what their plans are for the next steps associated with
Okinawa," Campbell said.
After Japan, Clinton will go to
Shanghai to stop by the American
Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. She will then move on to Beijing to meet
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner,
16 U.S. government agency heads, and over 200 U.S. officials for the second
round of the U.S.-China
Security and Economic Dialogue. "It includes virtually all elements of the
U.S. government, also key players from the Department of Defense and U.S.
Pacific Command as well," Campbell said.
Prior to the start of the dialogue,
Geithner will have lunch with Governor Zhou
Xiaochuan, from the People's Bank of China and then dinner with Vice
Premier Wang Qishan. On Monday,
Geithner has the honor of delivering the opening remarks at the session, Loevinger
said. The highest level meeting will be Tuesday afternoon, when Clinton and Geithner
will meet with Premier Wen Jiabao
and President Hu Jintao.
Loevinger said that the U.S. is
still pressing China to move toward a more market based currency system, but
didn't have any progress to report. "While we don't know when China is going to
move, we remain confident that they're going to determine that it's in their
interest to move to a more market-determined exchange rate," he said. He tried
to pitch it as a way for China to avoid a housing bubble. "They're increasingly
worried about the rise of housing prices. And a stronger, more flexible
exchange rate would help them manage challenges they face in their own economy."
No word on when or even if Treasury
will issue that report about Chinese currency manipulation that was
supposed to come out in April. "And the best thing to encourage an early
move by China, on the exchange rate, is to let these discussions play out,"
Loevinger explained, adding "I don't want to prejudge how those discussions are
going to play out.
Moving on to Seoul, Clinton will
meet with Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan,
and President Lee Myung-bak, where the
sinking of the South Korean corvette, the Cheonan, will be at the top of
the agenda. The investigation report will come out Wednesday night, Campbell
said. "I can tell you that the United States has been deeply and actively
involved in all aspects of the investigation, and the United States strongly
supports its conclusions as it will be rolled out this evening."
Campbell spoke about the violent
unrest in Thailand and said he was in contact with Thai government
representatives as well as the U.S. embassy in Bangkok. "There was widespread action.
The government did move against the key encampments in the middle of the city,"
he said, "Many of those groups have been disbanded. There has been substantial
burning, substantial looting throughout the city, and there are reports of
sporadic incidents throughout the country as a whole."
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