Trump's Secretary of State was a complete fool in Asia - a mirror of his boss

[bigtree]

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was poised to ride this momentum into Northeast Asia last week, but instead sustained a series of self-inflicted wounds. Before even departing Washington, he broke tradition by not inviting the State Department press corps on his plane, needlessly damaging relations with the media and forgoing the opportunity to better explain the contours of his mission. (“I’m not a big media press access person,” he said later, as if the only purpose of talking to reporters would be to serve his own agenda. “I personally don’t need it.”)

He then decided against a visit to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo in what would have been a simple and routine gesture to thank his overseas diplomats for their hard work. On his next stop in Seoul, Tillerson reportedly snubbed his hosts by turning down a dinner invitation due to what a South Korean official later descried as “fatigue.” Even as the secretary dismissed this characterization—a day later, because there was no American press around to rebut the claim—the occurrence of such a misunderstanding at all between two close allies was itself remarkable.

All this would have been bad enough. But Tillerson’s final act in Beijing was the most controversial and potentially damaging. Before meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the U.S. secretary of state parroted well-known Chinese Communist Party slogans, avowing that the United States and China have “a very positive relationship built on non-confrontation, no conflict, mutual respect and always searching for win-win solutions.” As if to underscore the point, he repeated them again after the meeting. The passages were nearly identical to President Xi Jinping’s own words standing aside President Barack Obama in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in November 2014.

While it’s easy to dismiss these phrases as diplomatic pablum, you can be sure that China’s leaders took note. As U.S. diplomats know, terms like “mutual respect” and “nonconfrontation” are code in Beijing for U.S. accommodation of a Chinese sphere of influence in Asia, requiring that the United States back off and respect China’s demands over issues including Taiwan, Tibet, the South China Sea and regional dominance more broadly. As for “win-win,” there’s a well-known joke among China experts that what it really means is China wins twice.

No surprise then, that the populist state-run newspaper Global Times raved that Tillerson had shown “unprecedented positive tendencies,” moderating his tone on North Korea and rightfully prioritizing U.S.-China relations over other thorny issues. Tillerson may have been more pointed in private, but repeating these phrases publicly signaled to China—and, don’t forget, America’s nervous allies and partners throughout Asia—that the Trump administration was willfully or unintentionally bowing to Beijing’s conception of a China-led region. (When pressed at the State Department’s daily briefing on Monday, acting spokesperson Mark Toner said of Tillerson: “He was aware of his word choice.”) Chinese analysts were quick to point out that Tillerson’s comments “will undermine U.S. authority among its allies” by exacerbating a persistent concern in Asia that Washington will ultimately capitulate to China’s rise. This comes after other actions by the Trump administration—such as withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and remaining silent on Chinese provocations in the South China Sea—that are amplifying China’s influence at America’s expense.


read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/tillerson-bumbles-around-asia-214936


...he's either a complete fool, or he's surrendering U.S. interests to China. That's almost identical to Trump's own blundering into Asia politics earlier in the transition with his phone conversation with Taiwanese officials. That blunder was also defended as deliberate.

Now, for some reason, Trump's Asia policy has lurched back to accommodating China.

How easy is it for the Executive to unilaterally steer U.S. government policy to accommodate nations who have been adversaries for decades? By hook or crook, we're being sold out to China and Russia, deliberate or not.

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[Cha]

1. shocking

Thank you, bigtree

[gademocrat7]

2. Another unqualified cabal member.

Tillerson is unfit to serve as Secretary of State.

[janterry]

3. He has no advice

His department isn't fully staffed and he fails to see the need for it, anyway. I told my daughter a few weeks ago, I'd be a better President than Trump. The same holds for Sec. of State. It's not that I'm necessarily prepared for either job (I'm not), but I'd actually have people around me who were - and I'd listen to them and learn.

This administration is unable to do either. And Tillerson, to his discredit, is equally incapable of that kind of foresight.

[milestogo]

5. My dog would be a better president than Trump.

At least he listens some of the time.

[janterry]

8. :)

[Vinca]

4. I think he's a Russian plant. Dear Leader didn't even know him before the appointment and he has

zero diplomatic skills. There's no reason he should have been awarded the job.

[bigtree]

7. he does have the look

...and manner of someone whose family's being held hostage.

Probably just what he appears, a corporate bag man working deals from the inside.

[Renew Deal]

6. He's a fool with no clue or authority.

So Tillerson tells the Chinese he wants mutual respect while Trump wants to sell weapons to Taiwan. Neither of these guys know what they're doing so they do what they know. Lie to their faces and make it up as they go. But Tillerson ultimately has no authority to do anything. Trump will do whatever he thinks of last (or hears from the Fox "news" experts on "the shows).

[bigtree]

9. »

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[winstars]

10. China gets Asia, Russia get Europe and US gets the America's. Middle East split up between 'em...

Sounds like a plan to me.