Washington:
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has left for a three-nation Asia tour beginning with Beijing where the top American diplomat hoped to have a wide range of discussions with the Chinese leadership including the issue of human rights.
However, just like the US President Barack Obama, Ms Clinton too refrained from making specific comment on the Chinese dissident who is now believed to be in the shelter of the US Embassy in Beijing.
"I look forward to traveling to China this evening. We will be going to Beijing for the Strategic and Economic Dialogue. We have a full range of issues that covers all of the political and economic matters that are of concern to our nations and our people," Ms Clinton said at a news conference on Monday.
"I'm not going to address the specific case at this time, but I just want to put it in a broader context. The US-China relationship is important. It's important not only to President Obama and me, but it's important to the people of the United States and the world. And we've worked hard to build an effective, constructive, comprehensive relationship that allows us to find ways to work together," she said.
"Now, a constructive relationship includes talking very frankly about those areas where we do not agree, including human rights. That is the spirit that is guiding me as I take off for Beijing tonight, and I can certainly guarantee that we will be discussing every matter, including human rights, that is pending between us," she added.
Commenting further on the human rights issue, the US leader said that human rights, freedom, and free movement of people inside China, who have a right to exercise their freedom under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are a matter of great concern to the United States.