Quote

The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken.

Thanks to the Internet in general and social media in particular, the Chinese people now have a mechanism to hold authorities accountable for wrongdoing - at least sometimes - without any actual political or legal reforms having taken place. Major political power struggles and scandals are no longer kept within elite circles.

Americans resident in China inform us that the ballot box in their country is greatly abused for personal ends, and Chinese admirers of the American Republic have not minutely examined its defects.

It's proper and appropriate to remind the Chinese about what they get out of solid relations with the United States.

We encourage China to engage as a good global citizen and we are clear-eyed about where differences do lie.

What frustrates U.S. officials is that China sometimes seems more comfortable accommodating a strong United States, as it did in past decades, than partnering with an America that's less dominant.

Mistakes, after all, are endemic to foreign and military policy given the unpredictability of events and the difficulty of securing reliable information in a place like Iraq.

Chinese military spending is carefully monitored by the United States.

Fact-checking can wreak havoc on Chinese political mythology.

China itself has said repeatedly that they will and have been conforming to international law.