Containing China a big mistake: Alexander Downer tells Rice

[DoYouEverWonder]

March 16, 2006

PURSUING the containment of China would be a big mistake, warned Alexander Downer yesterday as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Sydney for a three-day visit.

In a message aimed at placating Beijing and cautioning the Bush administration hawks who see China as a rising threat, Mr Downer said the challenge was to ensure that China's economic power was harnessed to the advantage of the region.

"Our message is that we don't support a policy of containment of China.

"I think a policy of containment of China would be a very big mistake," he told Sky News.

Dr Rice's visit will include the inaugural trilateral dialogue between the US, Australia and Japan.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18482800%255E601,00.html


Someone needs to get Condi down off her high horse. I'm sick her trying to set the stage for WW3

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. that implies she reads more than her fawning press reports.

Face it. Every single project or task she has had, she has thoroughly fucked up. I still don't understand why no one in the press mentions this.
From NSC (Jeez, what happened on her watch, despite warnings?) to rebuilding Iraq, not one project, not one visit as SecState, nothing has been done properly. She is a conceited, arrogant, leather-strutting fool who still needs dental work.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. It is so hard to pick

which one is the worst of this bunch. How the hell did such a collection of corrupt individuals all end up in the WH?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. it takes real talent to pull together such a group.

just flipping a coin would be many times better.

[Copperred]

11. Because people like us let it happen....that's how.

[calimary]

13. Boggles the mind, doesn't it?

I find myself saying "if you want to make sure something gets thoroughly fucked up, put condi on it."

She's the poorest excuse for a PhD ever to walk the planet. With all those fabled "brains" of hers, how does she manage to screw EVERYTHING up that she even gets near, let alone being able to touch. It's completely stunning to me.

And YES, let's all remember (and remind people) of just who it was who won this big-ass tug-of-war with rummy over the "coordination of post-war Iraq." Contradicta, that's who. And what an utterly MAHVELOUS job she's done there, 'eh? Aren't we all just so impressed?

My DOG could do a better job. Our recently dear-departed hamster could do a better job. Even NOW.

[tanyev]

3. How in the heck does she think we would be able to contain China?

[leesa]

5. She doesn't think, she just spouts.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Maybe she thought they were talking about dinnerware

and she figured she could fit them all in her china cabinet?

[tanyev]

9. LOL! Or Chinet! A few big trash bags should take care of it, right?

[KansDem]

12. She's a Soviet expert...

and they disappeared in 1989.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

15. worse, she was a USSR Historian. not an expert. Very different.

one has transferable knowledge. the other has a degree and tight leather clothing. not to mention a great shoe and boot collection.

[JNelson6563]

7. Arrogant to think China can be "contained"

and it's a special kind of stupid to even try.

[LynnTheDem]

8. But then Rice was told by Brent Scowcroft invading Iraq = huge mistake

And guess how much attention stupid Rice paid to him.

bush & his Devil's Handmaiden don't bother with experts' facts.

[donkeyotay]

10. Condi, the one-trick Vulcan pony is almost as big a failure as the

candidate whose lack of experience in affairs foreign she supposedly compensated for. Since then, she hasn't been able to foresee or imagine much, but now the US, who has promoted pre-emptive global rights, is going to lecture the country we outsourced our economy to on being humble.

snip>
Dr Rice said last week that the pace and reach of Beijing's military build-up was something that had to be watched by the trilateral dialogue partners.

"I think all of us in the region, particularly those of us who are longstanding allies, have a joint responsibility and obligation to try and produce conditions in which the rise of China will be a positive force in international politics, not a negative force," she told The Australian before leaving Washington.
end>

I wonder what a "negative force" would be; kicking Vulcan butt back to Washington?

[madmark]

14. i think that china does pose threat; but lord knows the current group

idiots in Bushco cannot do a damn thing right, and they should just leave the issue alone, like they should for everything else, for the next 2 1/2 years until they are removed from power.