01/25/2012

Political Situation in China ‘Very Delicate’: US Ambassador

By: Ansuya Harjani
Assistant Producer, CNBC Asia-Pacific
U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke has told National Public Radio (NPR) in the U.S. that the political situation in China is “very, very delicate” and the country’s human rights record had worsened.
Getty Images

His comments followed an interview with Charlie Rose, earlier in the week, where he criticized the country’s human rights record.

On Wednesday, China’s foreign ministry reacted to Locke’s earlier comments saying it objected to interference in its internal affairs.

Frank Lavin, the former U.S. Ambassador to Singapore told CNBC.com that Locke’s comments were a little more forceful than the usual statements made by senior members of the U.S. government.

In an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, Locke said there is growing frustration among the Chinese people over the “operations of government, corruption, lack of transparency” and he referenced China’s “Jasmine Revolution” last February, which was modeled on the pro-democracy demonstrations seen across the Middle East.

Shaun Rein, Founder & Managing Director, China Market Research Group believes the statement won’t be taken lightly and says this incident just adds to the risk of a trade war between the U.S. and China.

Read more at CNBC

Jan 25, 2012 3:47:19 PM | Current Affairs, Politics

The comments to this entry are closed.

NEXT POST
Will The Chinese Regime Burn Itself Out? It's commonly argued that China's government can only survive with rapid economic growth, but Yu Liu and Dingding Chen think [pdf] that such progress will also bring down the Communists: It is true that the Chinese state is still very strong, with enormous fiscal, repressive, and even normative strength. But growing faster yet are the expectations of ordinary Chinese. With the memory of the Cultural Revolution fading, the benchmark of good performance is shifting. Younger Chinese are increasingly unlikely to compare their living standards with those of the revolutionary years. The opening up of China and the rapid rate of...
PREVIOUS POST
Chinese New Year can help Beijing sell 'brand China' For the most heavily populated nation on earth and its rapidly spreading diaspora, elements of Chinese New Year celebrations can sometimes resemble Christmas: people travel great distances to be together, businesses shut down, cities become quiet. Spending quality time with family and friends; exchanging the ubiquitous red packets containing freshly minted bank notes for luck; and eating and drinking are a few of the many key ingredients to celebrating the Lunar New Year. Given the importance of the festival and the growing size of the Chinese community, this period is clearly a commercial bonanza for many Asian suppliers. Equally, foreign...