Clinton’s swing through Asia

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week completed a whirlwind tour of Asia, where she said she hoped to “reintroduce America to the world” and find common ground on issues ranging from the economic crisis to climate change. Breaking five decades of tradition, Clinton’s first trip as secretary of state took her to Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, and China, rather than to Europe or the Middle East. She was rapturously received by officials and ordinary citizens alike, with one Chinese leader telling her that she looked “younger and more beautiful than on TV.”

In China, Clinton said differences over political freedoms should not “interfere” with cooperation on the economy and security—a remark that drew fire from human-rights activists. She also raised eyebrows by candidly discussing a possible succession crisis in North Korea, whose leader, Kim Jong Il, reportedly suffered a stroke last year.

Clinton was far too polite in Beijing, said The Washington Post in an editorial. China must understand that the U.S. finds “the imprisonment of peaceful dissidents or the crushing of the opposition in Tibet” unacceptable. Saying so publicly makes this unequivocally clear, and gives a boost to the brave souls standing up to repression.

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Clinton did give a boost to the despots of North Korea, though, said former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton in the Los Angeles Times. She rightly called North Korea’s nuclear program “the most acute challenge to stability in northeast Asia.” But she gave no indication that she planned to punish Pyongyang for violating its pledge to abandon nuclear research, and suggested that multi-party talks could get North Korea to relent. I’m afraid we’re seeing the early signs of a very dangerous kind of “naïveté.”

What you’re seeing is the beginning of a foreign policy that could actually work, said Daniel Serwer in The Washington Post. After eight years of President Bush’s counterproductive, go-it-alone bellicosity, Clinton “is making a concerted and largely successful effort to change the tone” of U.S. diplomacy. Nobody should expect instant results, but can there be any doubt that it’s time to try a

different approach?