MEDIA REACTION: CHINA POLICY, MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS,

UNCLAS BEIJING 001778 DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/CM, EAP/PA, EAP/PD, C HQ PACOM FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR (J007) SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR CH PREL ECON SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: CHINA POLICY, MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS, INTERNET CENSORSHIP -------------- Editorial Quotes -------------- ¶1. CHINA POLICY "China needs to learn to create alliances" The official Xinhua News Agency international news publication International Herald Leader (Guoji Xianqu Daobao)(06/29): "Recently, the U.S. and Europe made a move to file a petition to WTO over China's production and export restriction on rare earth. Europe and the U.S. seldom take WTO actions against a third party, but now China is facing this odd situation. What we don't know is, is this an accident? Or, are they deliberately aligned together? We will have to be cautious because they may challenge China again on some other issues in the future. Three lessons for China to learn from this: Firstly, being a WTO member doesn't mean that the international economic environment will always be in our favor. Secondly, Chinese economic regulators need to be aware of the political consequences of their specific economic policies. Thirdly, as shown in this case, China should understand that it needs to create alliances not only for diplomacy and security purposes, but also for its economic relations." ¶2. MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS "Obama's Middle East policy is still in the test phase" The Beijing-based newspaper, The Beijing News (Xin Jing Bao), sponsored by the official intellectual publication, Guangming Daily, and Guangdong Provincial official publication Nanfang Daily (06/29): "Now is not the time for the U.S. to fully promote Middle East peace. Washington does not have the luxury of fulfilling its promises to the Islamic world until the economy recovers. To better react to the provocations from Iran, the U.S. needs to create an atmosphere of national reconciliation in Iraq. It's very obvious that the Iraq peace process has to be done in both political and economical scenes. When the political aspect is not improving, the strategic importance of economic recovery is more critical. In Obama's first term, he will try to maintain the relationship with the Islamic world while pushing forward the peace talks with Iran, in order not to make the situation in the Middle East worse. If he can win a second term, he will achieve more in establishing a Palestinian state and other issues. " ¶3. INTERNET CENSORSHIP "Western countries complicated China's intent to install ' Green Dam'" The official Communist Party international news publication Global Times (Huanqiu Shibao) (06/29): "First of all, the Western countries did this out of their economic interests. The U.S. government intervenes in any action that might damage the interests of its IT industry, fearing that such restrictions will drive the U.S. IT companies out of the China market; Second, to politicize this issue is a more favorable choice to the Western countries. Thirdly, the global financial crisis makes China look good, which makes the United States and other Western countries feel unhappy. They want to catch this opportunity to regain the initiative. This is very important to the United States. China's regulations over their networks are not the most radical when compared with some other countries like South Korea, Singapore or even France. However, Western countries often criticize China most severely. China is a big country and has a great potential to become the next superpower. That's why Western countries are more concerned about China. Western countries keep playing up this matter on account of China's different ideology. The United States and other Western countries' noise about this matter are closely related to the current situation in China. At present, China is very strong grass-roots democratic society, speculating about this matter could draw the echo of some Chinese netizens. From the response of the Western countries we can see that the future management of the Internet in China may face greater challenges. China must be prepared to deal with the international pressure." GOLDBERG