Word: hawkishly
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...problem with the hard line is that it tends to beget the hard line. Hawkish elements in the Chinese leadership may be content to drag out the standoff over a downed U.S. spy plane in the hope of backing the U.S. away from selling sophisticated weapons to Taiwan - and, perhaps, to score domestic political points against their more reformist rivals in Beijing's arcane leadership struggle. But if anything, by openly challenging President Bush's prestige in its handling of the incident, Beijing may have ultimately reinforced the hawkish trend in Washington...
...talks with China's Vice Premier, Qian Qichen, he bluntly said Washington would sell whatever arms it chose to Taiwan, whether Beijing liked it or not. Bush and his advisers seemed downright eager to prove there's a new sheriff in town, ready to take a more hawkish, assertive posture on foreign policy. What's far less clear is whether the tough talk is simply a way to distance himself from Clinton, the posturing of an unsettled Administration that has yet to conform its rhetoric to its policies?or the harbinger of sharp confrontations to come...
...talks with China's Vice Premier, Qian Qichen, he bluntly said Washington would sell whatever arms it chose to Taiwan, whether Beijing liked it or not. Bush and his advisers seemed downright eager to prove there's a new sheriff in town, ready to take a more hawkish, assertive posture on foreign policy. What's far less clear is whether the tough talk is simply a way to distance himself from Clinton, the posturing of an unsettled Administration that has yet to conform its rhetoric to its policies--or the harbinger of sharp confrontations to come...
Still, both in its more aggressive response to U.S. patrols around its airspace and in its detention of the downed surveillance plane, China - or at least some hawkish elements in the Chinese leadership - appear set on playing hard ball. Although China's announcement Monday that it would grant the U.S. access to the detained personnel appeared to signal that there are limits as to how far Beijing wants to push President Bush into a crisis, the fact that Chinese sources reported that the plane had been boarded in defiance of the U.S. insistence that it is sovereign territory suggests...
...Even though the secretary of state dutifully fell in line the following day, the tenor of Bush's comments suggested that more hawkish elements in the administration may have been making their presence felt. After all, Bush could quite simply have done the "we wholeheartedly support South Korea's peace efforts and are studying ways to take it forward" routine - the diplomatic equivalent of "no comment" - instead of pointedly questioning the wisdom of negotiating with Pyongyang, which was a sharp slapdown to President Kim's "sunshine" policy of reconciliation with the North...