AMBASSADOR LOCKE: Well,
welcome everyone. And we’re so honored to have Secretary Hillary
Clinton with us today. And she brought the beautiful weather, so let’s
thank her for the – (cheers) – beautiful weather and the very clean air.
But she’s with us in the midst of another extremely busy globetrotting
itinerary from the Cook Islands down near New Zealand then to Indonesia,
up here to China. She came in last evening. Then she’s going to go back
down tonight to Timor-Leste and then off to Brunei and then back up to
Vladivostok for the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting.
It means to
all of us, Secretary Clinton, that you’re here to take time to meet and
greet our Embassy and their families. We know that this is very much in
character, however, with her remarkable tenure as Secretary of State.
She’s traveled more than – get a load of this – 865,000 miles and
visited more than 100 countries. And China was her very first trip
abroad as Secretary of State, and since then she has spent more than 365
days on the road in – a full year in less than four years as Secretary
of State.
I have to let you know that the Secretary’s dedication
and stamina and – are absolutely amazing. As I indicated, she came in
last night. Our very first meetings with the Chinese Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and top Chinese Government officials started at nine o’clock
and did not end until almost one o’clock in the morning. Everyone else
in the room, including the Chinese and the American staff, were falling
asleep, having a hard time. (Laughter.) I was fidgeting in my chair,
trying to stay alert. And I look over to Secretary Clinton. She’s
sitting perfectly straight up, at full attention and alert. And your mom
would be very, very proud. (Laughter.) Very energized.
But you
cannot capture her remarkable career in public service in numbers. She
was, of course, an amazing First Lady of the United States of America.
She’s been a champion of human rights all around the world, standing up
for women’s rights in particular. And we all remember her very, very
first trip to China, in where she famously said that women’s rights are
human rights. (Cheers and applause.) But her commitment to public
service runs deep, and after serving as our nation’s First Lady, she was
a very effective U.S. senator who gained bipartisan respect, something
that we need a lot more of in the United States Congress these days.
For
our own part, Mona and I have valued her as a friend and as a
colleague. And we have a picture – we can show her the picture – in our
home of Mona and myself with Secretary Clinton, then First Lady Clinton,
and President Clinton during the Clintons’ 1996 reelection campaign.
And Mona and I – we were running for governor in Washington and we are
on bus trip through the back route of Washington State, and President
Clinton and First Lady Clinton were giving us advice on how to be public
servants.
And I don’t think you’ll ever forget also that later
when our several-month-old Emily was on your shoulder, and you were
carrying her on your shoulder. And she was, of course, the First Lady of
America visiting the State of Washington, and our few-month-old baby
girl, of course, when you’re on someone’s shoulder, had a little bit of a
burp. (Laughter.)
But we’re so proud and honored to have you
here. And I’ve served with you when you were First Lady and we were
governor. I served with you as fellow cabinet members under President
Obama’s Administration, and now I’m just so proud and honored to be part
of your State Department team here in Beijing. (Applause.)
Madam
Secretary, as you can see today, we have a large number of employees and
families here to see you, and the hours and the miles you’ve spent on
the road speak to your dedication, and the enthusiastic audience here
today reflects our appreciation for all of your hard work, but also our
admiration for your leadership, courage, tenacity, and stamina. I know
that the people of China actually have a very special fondness for you,
and I learned just recently that in Mandarin many Chinese refer you to
as Secretary Xi-la-li, or Secretary Hillary. They refer to you like a
friend.
On behalf of the men and women and the families from the
State Department and all foreign affairs agencies here at Embassy
Beijing, we thank you again for being here today. You’ve been to China
as our nation’s First Lady, a U.S. senator, and now as Secretary of
State. And this probably your – perhaps your last visit in that capacity
as Secretary of State, but we expect to see you back again in another
capacity in government after 2016. (Cheers and applause.) We’re looking
for an even higher title then.
Ladies and gentlemen, our
great honor to have with us, our great boss, Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton. (Cheers and applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON:
Yes, I’ll be back as ambassador – (laughter) – a great opportunity to
serve and to be a colleague of such extraordinary public servants as all
of you.
As the Ambassador said, I’ve known Gary and Mona for many
years now, and I am so pleased to see the impact they are both having
on China and in furthering our relationship, which is so vital to both
of our countries. I really am so grateful. It’s hard to believe that it
was only last August that you were sworn in as our ambassador. It’s gone
by very quickly. It’s been somewhat of an eventful year here at Embassy
Beijing. And there’s no surprise on my part at a lot of the
accomplishments that have taken place under Gary’s leadership. And I’m
so pleased that Mona can be a great ambassador as well to the Chinese
people. She is one of our great assets here on behalf of American
diplomacy. So to both Gary and Mona and to your three children, thank
you for serving your country in such a wonderful way. (Applause.)
And
I want to thank DCM Bob Wang. Thank you, Bob, for your service as well.
And all of you, I’m sure, know how important we feel about what we’re
doing here in the Asia Pacific, and in particular in the U.S.-China
relationship. It’s a complicated relationship. There’s no doubt about
that. But we believe strongly it’s a vital relationship and one of the
most important in determining the kind of future that we’ll have for the
beautiful children and young people that I just took a picture with
outside.
We have – and have said it many times – a commitment to a
successful China, a China that continues to serve the needs
economically of their own people, but also a China that is a positive
force for global security, stability, and prosperity. Now, we are
blazing new territory here, trying to find the right balance between
cooperation and competition. We literally are figuring it out each day,
and we are counting on all of you and your colleagues, not only here in
Beijing but across China, to help us do just that. It means a lot of
long hours and a lot of extra work, but we are grateful to you.
Our
mission to China has almost 2,000 employees, representatives from 19
different federal agencies. That alone shows what a premium we place on
the relationship. And when I worked to try to combine all of the
dialogues that were happening when the Obama Administration came into
office, I said I wanted to create an umbrella, because we have so many
different agencies and concerns that are being acted on every day. We
need to be sure that we coordinate more effectively. So the Strategic
and Economic Dialogue was meant to be the mechanism for that level of
coordination and to develop habits of cooperation between and among our
governments.
It is not just the size that matters. Obviously, this
is a very large country and will require a large American presence. But
it is the way you have translated this mission into results for Chinese
and Americans alike. I told Gary that one of the unbelievable
accomplishments of his tenure in really less than a year is the way you
have set records for processing visas. You really made a difference in
accelerating the ability of Chinese to come to the United States.
Because I believe firmly in these people-to-people transactions, our
business-to-business transactions, our student exchanges, recreation,
and travel. We need to keep that flow going. And I am very grateful for
the way that you have set the standard.
We have tried to support
you in that, but the work has been done by this mission here in Beijing
and across the country. We brag everywhere we go, I and others in the
State Department, about everything you’ve done to improve the speed and
volume of visa processing. But I think it bears repeating, dropping wait
times from more than 50 days in 2011 to six days is hugely impressive.
And when you translate those visas into tourist spending and new
business investment, it has a direct impact on our own economic recovery
back home. So more Chinese students, more business people, more
tourists. And I understand you are on pace to process as many as 1.4
million visa applications this year. So I want you all to give
yourselves a round of applause for such an amazing achievement.
(Applause.)
And there’s so much else that you do every single day.
Those of you not working directly in consular affairs, you’re working
to advance human rights and democracy in a very challenging and
fast-paced environment. And I want to take just a moment to remember
that when I was here in May I was proud to present our Department-wide
Human Rights Award to four winners from mission China. I want to, again,
reiterate how important your work is in promoting the universal values
that we believe in and that we think are the birthright of every human
being. Human rights are as fundamental with our agenda with China as
economic statecraft, so I thank you for your dedication and commitment.
And again, let’s give a round of applause to all the working on behalf
of human rights and democracy. (Applause.)
Now, I will take credit
for the clear day and the pollution-free environment – (laughter) – but
I know that it’s something that affects you, and particularly if you
have children here, something that you are concerned about, especially
during the hot summer months. So I want to thank the Embassy and the
environment, science, and technology and health staff for your
commitment to monitoring and improving the air quality for everyone who
works in our facilities. You’re not only helping people stay healthy,
but you’re leading by example and keeping the focus on a major problem
that affects many millions of Chinese citizens as well. I know that
there was a little bit of grief for publicizing the air pollution
quality measurements, but I think that was all to the good, because it
really is important to get information that can help people, whether
they’re here on our Embassy team or out in the communities here and
around China.
I also want to thank our local Chinese staff. I know
how challenging it is from time to time to be part of this incredible
effort we’re undertaking to improve relations between our two countries
and to put us on a very firm foundation for the future. But could all
our local Chinese staff just raise your hands? Because I want to give
you a round of applause as well. (Applause.) It’s true all over the
world that ambassadors and Secretaries of State come and go, but our
locally employed staff remain the link between the United States and the
people of China. You’re the memory bank and the nerve center, and we
are grateful to you for your expertise and experience.
To all of
our team here, Chinese and American staff and families alike, thank you.
Thank you for your commitment, and in many cases your sacrifice.
Particularly for Americans, I know living so far from home, from family,
from friends can be a challenge. But this is what you signed up for.
You signed up for going out into the world and exercising American
influence on behalf of American values and American interests and
American security. And we could not – we absolutely could not – expect
to make progress in this vital relationship without you being willing to
do so.
So for me, I am personally honored to serve with
colleagues like all of you. I think it’s an especially tumultuous but
exciting time in history to be working on behalf of the United States,
and especially here in China. It’s exciting for me to come back and see
the progress that has taken place here in China and to be determined
that we’re going to keep forging this positive, cooperative,
comprehensive relationship that President Obama and President Hu Jintao
have committed to.
I just finished a very long press conference
with Foreign Minister Yang, and he was asked, look – by the Chinese
press – don’t you think America’s just out to contain you and don’t you
think that conflict is inevitable? And he said what I had said earlier
in the press conference: We are trying to do something which has never
been done before, where you have a rising power and a dominant power.
And as that rising power assumes greater and greater influence and reach
far beyond its borders, we want to see China be a responsible global
leader, on the side of helping to solve problems and prevent conflict.
Yes.
Do we have disagreements? Of course. What two nations don’t? What two
people don’t? That seems to be obvious to me. And we will continue to be
forthright about our disagreements, whether it’s on human rights or the
South China Sea or anything else. But overall we are committed to
ensuring that we find as many areas of cooperation as possible and that
we produce practical results for our people and the Chinese people, as
well as the region and the world.
So when we talk about our
people-to-people exchanges – some of you helped when I did that last
May; it was genuinely moving to see the young American student and the
young Chinese student talking about what it had meant to their lives to
have studied in the other country – when we talk about the 100,000
Strong, when we are trying to convey more clearly what Americans stand
for, when we had the Shanghai Expo and the USA pavilion was staffed by
young Americans of every ethnic and racial background, speaking Chinese,
hosting all of the visitors who were coming, we are building
connections, government-to-government, people-to-people. And we could
not do that without all of you and the many hundreds of others who work
with you every single day.
Now, I am going to try to shake as many
hands as I can before I leave. I only have three more meetings and a
dinner left. (Laughter.) But I hope that you know how grateful we are in
Washington. We are well aware that we could not do what we are
attempting without all of you.
So Gary and Mona, thank you for
being such a dynamic duo, leading our Embassy. I love reading about the
tweets and the blogs about Gary’s backpack – (laughter) – and buying
coffee. And I want to see more about you, Mona. I want to see you out
there meeting and working with and interacting with more Chinese people
as well. Because we want to have a full court press so everybody knows
that we are committed to this relationship, committed to the ongoing
depth and breadth of it, and that we are going to persevere through the
difficult and challenging times, some of which you might remember from
last May here at the Embassy, because we know it is ultimately in the
interest of the United States and China and the world for us to do so.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
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