LOS ANGELES -- There has been an unsettling discordance about U.S. policy toward China that was brought home anew by Donald Rumsfeld, recently at the annual IISS Asia Security Summit in Singapore. Why this discredited man with his failed Iraqi policies remains U.S. secretary of defense is a profound mystery only the ever-loyal President George W. Bush can possibly unravel. But there he was, as a principal speaker, jabbering away anew at the Asia security summit, and yet -- fully five years into the job -- still parsing out the nuances of the Sino-U.S. relationship in public. It was as if the utter necessity of getting along with China was somehow a new hard-to-grasp idea.
Five years as defense secretary should be enough time to get that all-important relationship right and tight. Thus, it was pleasant to see that the immediate Western news-media reports from the International Institute for Strategic Studies conference suggested that Rumsfeld was getting closer than ever to peaceful coherence.
In remarks formal and informal, the defense boss painted a regional international relations picture that was more modified multilateral mosaic than pointed unilateral unicorn.