Victoria Nuland said about China, Japan & Senkaku Island

Daily Press Briefing: January 22, 2013

QUESTION: China?

MS. NULAND: Yeah.

QUESTION: Last Friday, Secretary Clinton sent a clear message against China about same type of issue. And right after that, spokesman of the Chinese Government criticized that comment strongly and then also invaded Japanese territorial water again and again. So how do you response this action and comment by the Chinese Government?

MS. NULAND: Well, the comments that the Secretary made on Friday when Foreign Minister Kishida was here reflected the longstanding U.S. position on this. Frankly, there was nothing new in the comments that she made. They were simply a reiteration of where we have been, starting with the fact that we don’t see any solution to this problem unless and until Japan and China sit down and work it out through dialogue. So in that context, we are happy to see a high-level envoy from the Abe Administration being received in Beijing, and we hope that that is the start of a real process of dialogue between the countries.

Please.

QUESTION: Yeah. I’d like to follow up on that question. Apparently in this Xinhua commentary, they said Mrs. Clinton – not referring directly to Mrs. Clinton, but saying U.S. officials were irresponsible concerning these islands and that the irresponsible remarks would worsen rather than relieve tension on this issue. How does the State Department respond in such a comment?

MS. NULAND: Again, I think I’ve just responded in saying that the Secretary was simply reiterating the longstanding position of the United States on this situation, a position that we’ve made clear to both governments, and rather than pointing their concern at us, the Chinese ought to be working with the Government of Japan to try to resolve these issues through dialogue.

QUESTION: Do you have any contact with Chinese Government after her comment?

MS. NULAND: Well, obviously we have contact through our Embassy. We have contact through Assistant Secretary Campbell. As you know, he was recently there. I guess he wasn’t there on this last trip, but he’s in regular contact. We had Cui Tiankai here just the week before.