webmaster
© Copyright DEHAI-Eritrea OnLine, 1993-2011
All rights reserved
From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Wed Mar 09 2011 - 00:23:21 EST
US struggling to hold role as global leader, Clinton says
By Daniel Dombey in Washington
Published: March 2 2011 20:28 | Last updated: March 2 2011 20:28
The US is at risk of falling behind in a global battle for influence with
China <http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/category/asia/china/>, Hillary
Clinton, secretary of state, has warned, in a bleak account of how
Washington’s straitened financial circumstances affect its world role.
In an appearance before
Congress<http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/03/157483.htm>,
Mrs Clinton highlighted the “unbelievable” competition with China for
influence over islands in the Pacific, with development of Papua New
Guinea’s “huge” energy reserves one of the key issues at stake.
Arguing against proposed cuts to the state department budget, she added that
the US was already losing an “information war” to
al-Jazeera<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/58ee83ca-4048-11e0-9140-00144feabdc0.html>,
the Arab news channel, with Russia and China increasing their international
broadcasting as Washington and London pulled back.
“We are in a competition for influence with China; let’s put aside the
moral, humanitarian, do-good side of what we believe in, and let’s just talk
straight realpolitik,” she told the Senate foreign relations committee, as
she appealed to its members to keep state department funding intact.
Giving *ExxonMobil<http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=us:XOM>
*’s $15bn natural gas development in Papua New Guinea
<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/df1aede8-e415-11de-bed0-00144feab49a.html>as an
example, Mrs Clinton added: “China is in there every day in every way,
trying to figure out how it’s going to come in behind us, come in under us.”
She added that Beijing had “wined and dined” all the leaders of “these small
Pacific nations”. China has been courting Pacific nations for more than a
decade, initially in competition with Taiwan and more recently both as a
growing regional power and to secure resources.
Mrs Clinton said that it would be “devastating” to national security to
proceed with budget cuts favoured by Republicans of the House of
Representatives<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cd2f792e-44ee-11e0-80e7-00144feab49a.html>,
which would hit the state department more than many other departments.
The state department says that the cuts would amount to 16 per cent of 2010
spending.
“If anybody thinks that our retreating on these issues is somehow going to
be irrelevant to the maintenance of our leadership in a world where we are
competing with China, where we are competing with Iran, that is a mistaken
notion,” she said.
Mrs Clinton has also warned the House of Representatives this week of
China’s increasing efforts.
“They are expending enormous amounts of money; they have a huge diplomatic
presence across the Pacific,” she said. “The very least we could do is have
a USAid [development agency] office in either Fiji or Papua New Guinea, so
that we fly the flag and people know we care about them. That will be on the
chopping blocks.”
She added the US was losing out in battles with other broadcasters backed by
other governments. “We are in an information war, and we are losing that
war . . . Al-Jazeera is winning,” she said, while noting China and Russia’s
stepped-up international broadcasting and the cuts carried out by the BBC
World Service.
“We are missing in action,” she said.
Copyright <http://www.ft.com/servicestools/help/copyright> The Financial
Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal
use. Contact
us <http://ftcorporate.ft.com/contact-us.html> if you wish to print more to
distribute to others.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----