Following are excerpts from an article headlined "Clinton, China leaders talk but get no closer to agreement on Syria or S. China Sea disputes" at http://www.newser.com/article/da13e...reement-on-syria-or-s-china-sea-disputes.html (Begin excerpts) The U.S. wants China and the other claimants to adopt a binding code of conduct for the region, along with a process to resolve maritime disputes without coercion, intimidation or the use of force. Clinton wants the Chinese to drop their insistence on settling conflicting claims with individual nations and instead embrace a multilateral mechanism that will give the smaller members of the Association of South East Asian Nations greater clout in negotiations. Clinton wants all parties to make meaningful progress by a November summit of East Asian leaders that President Barack Obama plans to attend in Cambodia. Yang, however, repeated China's statements that it is ready to discuss the sea disputes only through bilateral talks. Dealing individually with the countries could give China greater leverage over its smaller neighbors. "China has sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and the adjacent waters. There is plenty of historical and jurisprudence evidence of that," he said, adding that freedom of navigation in the area was assured. Clinton and her comments on the South China Sea have been strongly criticized in the official Chinese media over the last two days. Hu gave what may have been another sign of Beijing's unhappiness with Clinton at the beginning of their talks by praising her only for implementing a student exchange initiative and for "actively" pushing for the construction of the U.S. pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo two years ago. (End excerpts) U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to narrow the differences between the two countries in her talks with Chinese leaders. As a sign of Beijing's unhappiness with Hillary Clinton at the beginning of their talks, Chinese President Hu praised her only for implementing a student exchange initiative and for "actively" pushing for the construction of the U.S. pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo two years ago. Hillary Clinton's diplomatic "misadventure" in Beijing can be depicted by the following analogy: A teacher visited her student's home to explain to the parents about her "code of conduct" initiative to award a "good conduct" prize to every "good" student in her class. The student's mother, who had been expressing displeasure at the teacher's complaints against her son's conduct, was not receptive to the proposal. Although she praised the teacher for taking time off to visit her home, she cancelled the scheduled meeting between her husband and the teacher. U.S. and China Yield Little Ground in Talks http://infoseekchina.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/u-s-and-china-yield-little-ground-in-talks/
