Must be that “smart diplomacy” again:
John Hinderaker calls it “unfreakingbelievable, even for the Obama administration:”
The Obama administration wants to push Beijing to treat its citizens better, but it also needs Chinese support on Iranian and North Korean nuclear standoffs, climate change and other difficult issues. …
[Assistant Secretary of State Michael] Posner said in addition to talks on freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination.
He said U.S. officials did not whitewash the American record and in fact raised on its [sic] own a new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to ask about a person’s immigration status if there is suspicion the person is in the country illegally.
John posts the actual transcript of the Assistant Secretary of State, Michael Posner:
QUESTION: Was there any areas in which China sort of turned the tables and raised its own complaints or concerns about U.S. practices around the globe or at home? Can you give some examples there –
ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: Sure. You know, I think – again, this goes back to Ambassador Huntsman’s comment. Part of a mature relationship is that you have an open discussion where you not only raise the other guy’s problems, but you raise your own, and you have a discussion about it. We did plenty of that. We had experts from the U.S. side, for example, yesterday, talking about treatment of Muslim Americans in an immigration context. We had a discussion of racial discrimination. We had a back-and-forth about how each of our societies are dealing with those sorts of questions. …
QUESTION: Did the recently passed Arizona immigration law come up? And, if so, did they bring it up or did you bring it up?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: We brought it up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session, and as a troubling trend in our society and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination, and that these are issues very much being debated in our own society.
You explain to my why should any American allow China, of all people, for cryin’ out loud, to “sort of turn the tables” on a discussion regarding human rights. At.All.
Maybe it’s because the left and China have similar methods.
“Enforcing its one-child-per-family policy by forced abortions, infanticide, and the systematic, state-sanctioned killing of orphans.”
Is it somehow not a human rights violation when you massacre/starve/torture your own people? Or, is it only a human rights violation when you take away the academic elite’s housekeepers?
The Obama administrations spends all of it’s days and most of it’s nights in Cloud Cuckoo Land. That’s the ONLY possible explanation.