Why is Asst. Secretary of State Michael Posner apologizing to China?

Rush Limbaugh is railing today about Obama Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner's human rights confessions on behalf of the U.S. to the Chicoms.  The Associated Press reported on the two-day meeting held last week between China and the U.S.:

Posner said in addition to talks on freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination.

He said U.S. officials did not whitewash the American record and in fact raised on its own a new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to ask about a person's immigration status if there is suspicion the person is in the country illegally.

John Hinderaker at Powerline is justifiability outraged and points out that Posner's remarks were actually worse than those reported by the AP:

What an idiot! China murdered millions of its citizens who opposed the government's Communist policies and allows most of its people little or no freedom. We, on the other hand, enforce our immigration laws. No, wait--actually we don't. That's why Arizona had to take a shot at it. Oh, by the way, Michael Posner, you clueless moron--China actually does enforce its immigration laws.

These dopes are actually proud of themselves for being morally and historically ignorant:

Jon Huntsman, U.S. ambassador to China who was in Washington, told reporters earlier Friday that the rights talks are a useful way to get results on tough issues.

"We're talking about issues that are uncomfortable, quite frankly, but it is a sign of maturity that we can talk about specific cases," Huntsman said.

Is it unfair to say that the Obama administration consists of a bunch of anti-American ignoramuses? If so, why?

UPDATE: Scott thinks I may be unjust to Huntsman, as it isn't clear what "specific cases" he is talking about and his comment may have been unrelated to Posner's apology. Fair enough. But I've reviewed the transcript of Huntsman's remarks and he repeatedly deferred to Posner. Posner, meanwhile, adopted Huntsman's "mature" comment and explicitly put it in the context of his own apologies for the U.S.:

QUESTION: Was there any areas [sic] in which China sort of turned the tables and raised its own complaints or concerns about U.S. practices around the globe or at home? Can you give some examples there -

ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: Sure. You know, I think - again, this goes back to Ambassador Huntsman's comment. Part of a mature relationship is that you have an open discussion where you not only raise the other guy's problems, but you raise your own, and you have a discussion about it. We did plenty of that. We had experts from the U.S. side, for example, yesterday, talking about treatment of Muslim Americans in an immigration context. We had a discussion of racial discrimination. We had a back-and-forth about how each of our societies are dealing with those sorts of questions. ...

QUESTION: Did the recently passed Arizona immigration law come up? And, if so, did they bring it up or did you bring it up?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY POSNER: We brought it up early and often. It was mentioned in the first session, and as a troubling trend in our society and an indication that we have to deal with issues of discrimination or potential discrimination, and that these are issues very much being debated in our own society.

So Posner's comments about Arizona were even worse than was reported by the AP. I would suggest to Ambassador Huntsman that if he wants to disassociate himself from the ignorance and the anti-Americanism of the Obama State Department, he should resign.

Michelle Malkin explains why Posner's actions should come as no surprise:

Question: Who the hell is Michael Posner, and why the hell is he apologizing to China?!

Answer: Michael Posner is the former head agitator at the transnationalist Human Rights First, who represents the textbook State Department mindset of pandering to the worst America-bashers without hesitation or shame. Foggy Bottom isn’t just stuck on stupid. It’s stuck on American self-sabotage.

Longtime readers of this blog will recall that Posner had a significant role in the attempted George Soros-ization of Ground Zero in 2005.

Moreover, Discover The Networks reports:

Michael Posner has been the executive director of Human Rights First since its founding in 1978. HRF describes itself as a group that “works in the United States and abroad to create a secure and humane world by advancing justice, human dignity and respect for the rule of law.” In practice, HRF is an open borders group that opposes all government efforts to control illegal immigration and strengthen American national security. Posner received his B.A. in history from the University of Michigan and his J.D. from UC Berkeley; before coming to HRF, he worked for the law firm of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal. He has taught at Yale Law School and is a visiting Lecturer at Columbia Law School.

An objective (and naive) observer might attribute the Obama administration's apologetic and sycophant behavior toward China to its desperate need for support in the Iranian and North Korean nuclear standoffs.  Some might even call it "good business" in light of the fact that China holds nearly a trillion dollars of U.S. Treasury debt.  The truth is actually more sinister.  It's a reflection of what President Obama really believes.

Nobel Peace Prize President sends Aegis cruisers and Patriot missiles to the Middle East

The New York Times is reporting that the U.S. is escalating efforts to provide missile defense to its reluctant allies in the Middle East.:

The Obama administration is accelerating the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Persian Gulf, placing special ships off the Iranian coast and antimissile systems in at least four Arab countries, according to administration and military officials.

Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait have accepted American Patriot missiles, military officials said.

The deployments come at a critical turning point in President Obama’s dealings with Iran. He is warning that his diplomatic outreach will now be combined with the “consequences,” as he put it in the State of the Union address, of the country’s continued defiance on its nuclear program. The administration is trying to win broad international consensus for sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, which Western nations say controls the military side of the nuclear program.

As part of that effort, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton publicly warned China on Friday that its opposition to sanctions was shortsighted.

The news that the United States is deploying antimissile defenses — including a rare public discussion of them by Gen. David H. Petraeus — appears to be part of a coordinated administration strategy to increase pressure on Iran.

The deployments are also partly intended to counter the impression that Iran is fast becoming the most powerful military force in the Middle East and to forestall any Iranian escalation of its confrontation with the West if a new set of sanctions is imposed. In addition, the administration is trying to show Israel that there is no immediate need for military strikes against Iranian nuclear and missile facilities, according to administration officials, all of whom requested anonymity.

By highlighting the defensive nature of the buildup the administration was hoping to avoid a sharp response from Tehran.

So the buildup is designed to allay the existential fears of Israel while simultaneously avoiding a sharp response from Iran?  Meanwhile, Obama sends Secretary of State Clinton to Paris to scold China for its lack of support for Iranian sanctions in the same week that his administration announced  its plans to sell $6.4 billion of weapons and aircraft to Taiwan in compliance with the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.

The President's stalled domestic agenda is about to look like a cake walk.

China says drill, baby, drill

Dow Jones Newswire reported last week that the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) is negotiating with Norway's StatoilHydro ASA for oil leases in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico.  You may recall back in 2005 CNOOC tried to acquire Unocal Corp., but was thwarted by the Congress based on national security grounds.

David Pierson makes the case today in the L.A. Times, that, if true, this deal puts the U.S. in an awkward spot:

Whether CNOOC's second attempt to lock up U.S. petroleum assets will trigger a similar political backlash remains to be seen. The sour U.S. economy and the need for Washington and Beijing to cooperate on potentially larger issues could mute any outcry.

The U.S. could also find it difficult to rebuff China when it has long welcomed other foreign investment in the gulf. In addition to StatoilHydro, foreign oil companies with stakes in deep-water projects there include Spain's Repsol, France's Total, Brazil's Petrobras, British oil giant BP and the Dutch-British multinational Shell.

The U.S. risks undercutting its foreign policy goals as well. Concern is growing over China's aggressive investment in oil-rich nations with anti-U.S. regimes, including Iran and Sudan. Denying China a shot at drilling in U.S. waters would only encourage Beijing to make deals in volatile regions given that new oil reserves in stable, democratic nations are getting harder to find.

One of the "potentially larger issues" that Pierson doesn't directly address is America's growing dependence on China for cash.  In 2005, China was the second largest (to Japan) foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities, with $310 billion.  By 2008, China had eclipsed Japan to become our largest foreign lender, and amassed a U.S. debt portfolio exceeding $727 billion.  At the end of August of this year, those holdings had increased to almost $800 billion.

If the President is able to get his way on costly initiatives such as health care reform and/or cap and trade, there is little doubt that our borrowing from the Chinese will accelerate.  This fact alone suggests to me that Congress and the Obama administration will not put up much of a fuss about this deal.