Word: standoff
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...President Bush, it must be said, looked awkward and uncertain those first two days of the Hainan standoff. He talked tough, or tough-ish, but that appeared to only ratchet up the rhetoric from Beijing. He'd previously signaled his intention to play hardball with China, and had hoped to downgrade the central role the Middle Kingdom had played in the Clinton administration's Asia policy. Suddenly, here were the Chinese in his face, testing his resolve. And with the immediate fate of 24 U.S. personnel - and a relationship of profound geopolitical and economic consequence - at stake, there was precious...
...President Bush had decided by last Wednesday that he wanted the U.S. personnel home as quickly as possible, and to avoid escalating a standoff that had caught both sides off guard. And in his administration's more corporate style of management, the details were Powell's to determine and implement. The CEO had outlined the broad goals; the COO would handle the tactics...
...resolving the standoff was recognizing the political dynamic on the Chinese side. Plainly, President Jiang Zemin and the modernizers in Beijing who have staked their careers on opening China to the West and integrating it into the world economy had no interest in prolonging a confrontation that could only imperil their achievements. But in the atmosphere of hostility generated in China by the Hainan incident, there was a danger that those modernizers could be eclipsed by hard-liners in Beijing hoping to slow, or even turn back, the clock. A solution depended on Jiang and his allies' being given political...
...innately hostile force looking to encircle and contain China. On the other, Washington's aversion to escalating the crisis, and its gestures of contrition, will be used to undermine hard-line arguments. As in the case of Jiang, how the hard-liners emerge from the standoff will be determined more by the near-term outcome of other conflicts, such as over Taiwan...
...Taiwan: Win-win winners It was Taiwan's interests that the U.S. spy plane was defending on the mission that led to the Hainan standoff, and tensions between Washington and Beijing inevitably play to Taipei's advantage. While the standoff won't necessarily increase the likelihood of Taiwan's being sold the weapons it desires, it's unlikely to have decreased that likelihood. The Bush administration won't use Taiwan arms sales to punish Beijing, but it may find it difficult to soften its position on the Aegis sale in the wake of the standoff. And on Capitol Hill...