War of Wills
April 24, 2006 issue - This week's long-awaited summit between Hu
Jintao and George W. Bush in Washington has sent diplomatic sherpas in
both countries into overdrive. One last-minute development was a visit
to Beijing last week by Washington's assistant secretary of State for
Western Hemisphere Affairs, Thomas A. Shannon Jr. His was the
first-ever China trip by the State Department's point man on Latin
America. And his message to Beijing was blunt: tread carefully in
America's backyard, where China has lately been cultivating economic
and military ties. "We want to ensure that China respects the larger
consensus forged [in Latin America]: that democracy is the system that
the region wants to have and supports," said spokeswoman Jan Edmonson.
Congressman Dan Burton, the Republican chairman of a congressional
subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, framed U.S. concerns about
Beijing's intentions even more bluntly: "It's extremely important that
we don't let a potential enemy of the United States become a dominant
force in this part of the world."