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Clinton pragmatic in approach to Beijing

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When Hillary Rodham Clinton's best-selling autobiography, Living History, hit mainland bookshelves in 2003, she was reportedly outraged to hear that criticisms she had made while on a previous trip to Beijing about the suppression of women's rights had been deleted.

Thirteen years after those famous remarks at the Fourth World Conference on Women, Mrs Clinton, the freshly sworn-in US secretary of state, returned to China at the weekend, but this time with a more nuanced message.

Gone were the fierce remarks that once won applause from rights groups, and in their place was the acknowledgement that tackling the financial crisis, climate change and security should take precedence over human rights and Tibet issues.

In a string of meetings with leaders and officials, Mrs Clinton repeatedly stressed that China and the US should work together, and she called on Beijing to strengthen ties.

Leaders responded positively, with President Hu Jintao saying it was 'of ever greater importance than any time in the past' to develop Sino-US relations, according to Xinhua.

Mrs Clinton's trip is seen as a testing of the waters ahead of the policy changes under the administration of US President Barack Obama.

Yu Wanli, an associate professor at the Centre for International and Strategic Studies at Peking University, said sensitive issues such as human rights and Tibet would be pushed to the periphery as both sides realised co-operation was the most productive way to move forward.

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