China Wanted The White House To Fire The Head Of U.S. Pacific Command In Return For Exerting More Pressure On North Korea

Adm. Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, addresses the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney last December. AFP-JIJI

Japan Times: China urged U.S. to fire Pacific Command chief Harris in return for pressure on North Korea

BEIJING – China urged the United States to sack the head of the U.S. Pacific Command in return for exerting more pressure on North Korea amid concerns over its growing nuclear and missile threats, a source close to U.S.-China ties said Saturday.

The Chinese leadership headed by President Xi Jinping made the request, through its ambassador in the United States, to dismiss Adm. Harry Harris, known as a hard-liner on China, including with respect to the South China Sea issue, the source said.

China’s envoy to the United States, Cui Tiankai, conveyed the request to the U.S. side, to coincide with the first face-to-face, two-day meeting between President Donald Trump and Xi in Florida from April 6, but the Trump administration likely rejected it, the source said.

China is a longtime economic and diplomatic benefactor of North Korea.

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WNU Editor: Adm. Harry Harris has been a thorn on China's side for a long time .... A U.S. Admiral’s Bluntness Rattles China, and Washington (New York Times). More on Admiral Harris here .... Adm. Harry Harris, the military's hard-line commander in the Pacific, comes to Capitol Hill (Navy Times).

U.S. Pacific Admiral Rattles Both China And Washington

New York Times: A U.S. Admiral’s Bluntness Rattles China, and Washington

HONOLULU — He has called China “provocative and expansionist,” accusing it of “creating a Great Wall of sand” and “clearly militarizing” the disputed waters of the Western Pacific. “You’d have to believe in a flat earth to think otherwise,” he said in one appearance before Congress.

These are the words of the American commander in charge of military operations in the Asia-Pacific region, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., who has turned heads — and caused headaches — in Beijing as well as in Washington with language starker than any coming from his commander in chief, President Obama.

Admiral Harris makes no apologies for his candor, which has unsettled a more cautious White House. As China builds militarily fortified islands in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway long dominated by the United States, it is his job, he says, to talk to Congress, the American public and allies abroad about the threat.

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WNU Editor: He was Hillary Clinton's military adviser when she was Secretary of State. You have to wonder if he is positioning himself to be in a Clinton administration in the event that she wins the Presidential election. This is also probably the reason (and I am speculating now) on why the Pentagon does not want to reign him in when anyone else would be.