White House Briefing 11/30/07

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071130-5.html
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Q And just one other on -- any reaction to the word now that a number of ships and even one U.S. aircraft have been denied either port or landing rights in Hong Kong?

MS. PERINO: I'm following the story. Obviously this is something that we've been talking about for the past couple of days. DOD will have details, in terms of how many ships or in terms of the incident.

Q Any White House reaction to this?

MS. PERINO: This incident has not prevented us from being able to work with the Chinese. We are two very large countries, very powerful countries. We have a deep and mature relationship. We have open lines of communication, and we are taking advantage of those now so that we can establish better communication, and part of that is going to be establishing this mil-to-mil or military-to-military hotline that the President and President Hu Jintao agreed to when we were at APEC. And so I think that this has underscored a need to get that moving even faster.

Q But we're not talking about the same story we were talking about several days ago. This is new. They have now banned port calls at Christmas.

MS. PERINO: No, I understand. I understand that. And that's why I said that we are --

Q If we're so close to them, how come we haven't been able to work it out?

MS. PERINO: We are -- we've been communicating with them, and I am sure that we will be able to work it out with them. But that's why we are seeking a clarification from the other day. And we are working to make sure that this situation can be resolved.

Q What's your understanding about why it happened -- why it's happening?

MS. PERINO: Well, what I said the other day was that there was a misunderstanding or a miscommunication -- in my mind --

Q But it still said -- I mean, this is something new. I mean, if there's something new here --

MS. PERINO: No, I'm not sure if it all didn't happen on the same day. I'm not positive.

Q They did not.

MS. PERINO: That's why I need to check with DOD -- in terms of the decision that the Chinese made, when they made those decisions.

Q Well, in terms of their announcing it, it didn't happen on the same day.

MS. PERINO: I realize that, but there's a distinction.

Q What do you see as their reason?

MS. PERINO: As I said, Helen, we've asked for a clarification.

Q Is there a sense of trying to tone down the rhetoric on this and not be perceived as being too critical of the Chinese in a public setting like this?

MS. PERINO: No, I -- what I'm expressing is what the President believes, which is that we have lots of different areas of cooperation with China. We have a complicated relationship in some regards. We're two big countries. We have lots of issues regarding trade; we're working with them on a variety of issues at the U.N., including the issues regarding Iran; we have military-to-military exchanges that we're working towards. And this relationship is growing and maturing, and this is something that two nations should be able to work through, and I don't think escalating it everyday is necessary. We've asked for a clarification and we have a -- we are communicating with them both from here and also at DOD; they're talking to their counterparts as well.
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