BEIJING – It may be Hillary Clinton’s final trip to China in her current role as Secretary of State, but China’s state media has not held back in saying what they really feel about the former first lady and, by extension, the United States.

In an editorial entitled, “Secretary Clinton: the person who deeply reinforces US-China mutual suspicion,” in Tuesday's edition of noted nationalist newspaper, Global Times, the paper took Clinton to task for her “meddling” in the South China Seas and Diaoyu/Senakku disputes.

---

“Many Chinese people do not like Hillary Clinton,” the editorial stated. "She makes the Chinese public dislike and be wary of the United States, which does not necessarily serve U.S. foreign policy interests.”

Other Chinese state media avoided blaming Clinton for the current heightened tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, but nevertheless took issue with America’s recent “pivot” in the region.

Clinton has pledged to take a strong message to Beijing on the need to calm regional tensions over maritime disputes that have raised broader fears of military friction between the two major Pacific powers.

The last time Clinton visited Beijing, plans to highlight improving U.S.-China ties were derailed by a blind Chinese dissident whose dramatic flight to the U.S. embassy exposed the deeply uneasy relationship between Beijing and Washington.

This time, the irritants are disputes over tiny islets and craggy outcrops in oil- and gas-rich areas of the South and East China Seas that have set China against U.S. regional allies.

As Clinton preps for Asia-Pacific tour, is North Korea capable of reform?

As Clinton prepares to travel back to Beijing on Tuesday, U.S. officials say the message is once again one of cooperation and partnership -- and an important chance to compare notes during a tricky year of political transition.

But the unease remains, sharpened by disputes in the South and East China Seas that have rattled nerves across the region and led to testy exchanges with Washington just as the Obama administration "pivots" to the Asia-Pacific region following years of military engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pacific micro-nations cash in on US-China aid rivalry

Both governments, too, are preoccupied with politics at home, with the Obama administration fighting for re-election in November and China's ruling Communist Party preparing for a once-in-a-decade leadership change. 

Mistrust
The general sense of mistrust over American involvement in these issues which China adamantly claims are regional territorial disputes was apparent in many users, perhaps most succinctly put by one user who wrote, “The Diaoyu Islands belong to Asian people, we don’t need American help on this issue.”

Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China Seas

That position has dominated state media coverage of Clinton's visit to the region this week, manifesting itself in a consensus that the United States was behind much of the recent emboldened confrontations between other Asian powers – most notably the Philippines and Japan -- and China.

In yesterday’s edition of China Business News, an article noted that “The U.S. is the origin of all issues,” in the region and that Clinton’s visit to the region “delivers a message that Japan and the Philippines are just two sidekicks on the stage while the U.S. is the “boss” at the backstage.”

Whether state media's depiction of the U.S. Secretary of State accurately reflected the opinions of China's population was unclear, however.

Activist: I want to leave China 'on Clinton’s plane'

On China’s popular twitter-like service, Weibo, reaction to the editorial was mixed.

“The Global Times shouldn’t use their attitude towards Hilary to represent our collective opinion,” wrote one irate user. “I think she’s good, please don’t make fools of us.”

“History will prove that she [Clinton] is the real peacemaker," another user wrote. 

More world stories from NBC News:

• Pistorious sorry for timing, not content, of Paralympics outburst
• Sun Myung Moon, founder of Unification Church, dies at 92
• Girl accused of blasphemy in Pakistan may have been framed by Muslim cleric
• 'Big enough for all of us': Clinton says US can work with China in Pacific
• Assad stays cool amid reports of bread-line slaughter

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

 

BEIJING -- Change in North Korea, and its potential impact on American interests in the Asia-Pacific, is likely to be on the agenda when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets Chinese leaders next month on her region-wide tour.

Is the hermit kingdom, with its nuclear weapons program and a “military-first policy” that prioritizes its 1.2 million-strong army, capable of social reform?

Or is the latest staged-managed imagery from Pyongyang—of a Swiss-educated young leader displaying a stylish wife, giving thumbs up to pop music and promising that the belt-tightening days are over—a sign of a new beginning for the impoverished and isolated nation?

---

The buzz about North Korea’s tantalizing hints of change has gained currency with the recent visit to China of Jang Song Thaek, the powerful uncle of the new North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, followed by reports that Kim himself is seeking to visit China next month.

China vowed greater support and investment in North Korea’s languishing China-style special economic zones, and urged Pyongyang to let “market” principles guide its moribund economy.

But while signs are pointing to change in Pyongyang, North Korean propaganda was denouncing as “hallucination” any talk of reform, denying that the new leadership is breaking with the past.

Authoritarian dictatorship
As a neighbor and ally, China is sensitive to any shift in Pyongyang’s policy directions that could impact China’s interests.  While Beijing provides Pyongyang with massive aid to prevent regime collapse that could cause regional instability, China is opposed to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

“I think it’s not possible for Pyongyang to sacrifice its military-first and nuclear arms policies, and that in turn will limit all possibilities for reform,” observed Zhang Liangui, China’s top scholar on North Korea who graduated from Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang.

“I am not optimistic about reform because Kim Jun Un alone cannot decide, it will be decided by North Korea’s political system which prioritizes the army,” said Zhang, a professor of international strategic research at China’s central school for training communist party officials.

“There is low probability of significant change,” said Daniel Pinkston, Seoul-based senior analyst of the International Crisis Group.

North Korea’s system is “structurally set up as an authoritarian dictatorship…as long as the Kim family is in power it will be extraordinarily difficult to renounce the legacy of his father and grandfather,” Pinkston told NBC News, explaining his group’s latest report analyzing the barriers to reform in North Korea’s militarized society.

Preventing a Gadhafi-like fate
“As long as the Kim family regime is in power, they will not surrender nuclear weapons.  But I do not see why this is an obstacle for reforms,” argued Andrei Lankov, a Seoul-based Russian scholar on North Korea who also attended Kim Il Sung University.

“They will keep their nuclear devices, five or ten of them, for the deterrence purposes, just to make sure that they will not suffer the sorry state of Colonel [Moammar] Gadhaf i—while reforming the country if they consider that reform suit their interest,” he told NBC News.

Lankov noted, however, the “destabilizing” effects of reform. ”Sadly, the conservatives might be correct and I will not be surprised if the reforms will bring about a sudden collapse of the North Korean state,” he said, alluding to the examples of East Germany and Tunisia.

“It is still possible to take steps toward the market without giving up the nuclear program, though you would have to limit military spending,” according to Daniel Sneider, associate director for research at the Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University.

But for Sneider, one issue is the challenge posed to Pyongyang’s legitimacy by South Korea. North Korea used to be more prosperous than the South due to pampering by China and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.  But now, the North’s economy is barely three percent of the South’s, with half the population. The majority of North Koreans suffer from food shortages, according to UN reports.

“In the South, there is a wonderful example of a highly successful Korean market economy—the North claims to be morally superior and a purer Korean state, unpolluted by Western capitalism.  If they go down the road of market reform, that undermines a central plank of North Korean ideology,” Sneider said.

“The path of reform will be chosen by North Korea but China will certainly provide help,” said Lu Chao, director of North Korea Studies at the Academy of Social Sciences in Liaoning province, which shares a long border with North Korea.

Limited risk
Lu, who frequently meets with North Korean officials and businessmen from across the border, detects Pyongyang’s new focus on the economy.

“Kim Jung Un is focused on improving the quality of life, this can be seen in his visits to parks and artistic performances, in contrast with his father who prioritized the military,” Lu told NBC News.

“Some reforms are going on in the country, especially in agriculture,” he added, noting that farming reforms will pose “limited risks” to the regime.

For the International Crisis Group’s Pinkston, US policy should remain “deterrence and containment while being observant”.  

“The US should monitor, bilaterally and multilaterally, the situation in North Korea, maintain a strong deterrence and containment posture, but be willing, when the opportunity presents itself,  to engage North Korea if it changes its policy directions,” Pinkston said.

Clinton is scheduled to visit China Sept 4-5, before becoming the highest-ranking US official to visit East Timor, which gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.

She will later visit the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Vladivostok, eastern Russia.

NBC researchers Tianzhou Ye and Lorraine Liu contributed to this report. 

More world stories from NBC News:

• 'Superhuman' athletes burst onto world stage
• Red Cross halts most Pakistan aid in wake of beheading
• Unexploded WWII bomb disrupts Amsterdam airport
• Pakistani Christians live in fear after girl's blasphemy arrest
• 'A less polar pole': Arctic sea ice at record low
• Botched restoration turns Spanish church into tourist attraction

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

 

Updated 08:31 a.m. ET: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "progress had been made" on a deal over the future of Chen Guangcheng, telling reporters in Beijing she was encouraged by China's suggestions that the blind activist might be allowed to study abroad. 

After she spoke, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told Reuters that Chen had been offered a fellowship from an American university, where he could be accompanied by his wife and two children.

---

"The Chinese Government has indicated that it will accept Mr. Chen's applications for appropriate travel documents. The United States government expects that the Chinese government will expeditiously process his applications for these documents, and make accommodations for his current medical condition," she added.

"The United States government would then give visa requests for him and his immediate family priority attention," Nuland said.

Clinton said efforts would continue to finalize an agreement over Chen's future, adding that the U.S. ambassador had visited the dissident in hospital.

"We have been very clear and committed to honoring his choices and our values," Clinton said of Chen.

Signs of a deal will provide relief to both the Obama administration -- which feared the case would overshadow the ongoing economic talks, Clinton's main purpose in China -- and the Chinese, who were reportedly keen to resolve the issue while saving face.

Earlier, Chen told The Associated Press that friends who had tried to visit him “have been beaten,” his wife Yuan Weijing had been followed and U.S. officials had been prevented from seeing him in person.

He added that he had spoken to U.S. officials by phone, but “the calls keep getting cut off after two sentences.”

“Basically I am very worried. Okay? … It is very dangerous here,” Chen told the AP, before the line went dead.

Chen, 40, is a legal activist from Shandong province who campaigned against forced abortions under China's "one-child" policy.

On April 22, he escaped 19 months of house arrest, during which he and his family faced beatings and threats. Supporters then said he was in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which he left after six days to go to the hospital on Tuesday this week after receiving assurances from the Chinese authorities.

Chinese crackdown on dissident's family and friends

He Peirong, an activist who helped Chen escape from house arrest and drove him to Beijing was released by police Friday. She was taken away by police last Saturday. She tweeted at about 3 a.m. ST that "I'm back, everything is ok, thank you.” She declined to comment to NBC News.

Blind activist Chen Guangcheng: 'I want to leave China on Hillary Clinton's plane'

Lawyer Jiang Tianyong, another of Chen’s friends, was arrested by police Thursday evening and told NBC News Friday afternoon that he had been beaten up. He lost his hearing temporarily and is undergoing a medical check-up now, accompanied by police.

Amid the continuing concern over what will happen to Chen and his supporters, Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met Wen in the pavilion, a ceremonial reception hall in the style of a Chinese pagoda, nestled by pine trees and a lake in the middle of Beijing.

"This round of the dialogue is highly productive. I can say we achieved rich fruit in this round and some of those are important breakthroughs,” Wen said, according to a translator.

"What is the secret behind the sustained and the steady growth of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue [formal name for talks between the two countries]? I believe the most important thing is that we respect each other and treat each other as equals and have accommodated each other's major concerns,” he added.

China censors 'Shawshank' as Clinton heads to Beijing amid dissident drama

Clinton's prepared remarks for the meeting did not specifically mention Chen, but did say that the responsibilities of a "great nation" included "protecting the fundamental freedoms of all citizens at home."  

"All governments have the responsibility of addressing their citizens' aspirations for dignity and rule of law.  These are not Western values -- they are universal rights that apply to all people in all places," she said.

Blind activist: Chinese officials threatened my wife

She also talked about North Korea, Iran, Syria, and the Sudan-South Sudan conflict, describing them as "four hotspots" that "are some of the most pressing challenges we face."

Guo Yushan – who was released by police two days ago after helping Chen get to Beijing -- said in a posting on Twitter that on Chen’s first day in the hospital “some unpleasant things happened, bringing some inconvenience and misery to him and his family, making them feel anxious and nervous.” 

Blind dissident's case a 'hot potato' for US-China relations

“Among all these things, he worried most about the threat from some Shandong officials to his wife Yuan Weijing,” Guo said, according to a translation. “He hopes that, under massive attention from global public opinion, the Chinese government can abide by the law and deal properly with Shandong local officials' illegal persecution on him and his family.”

Guo said that his friend was “very grateful to the world media's attention and care, and hopes that the media can understand his current complex and delicate situation, and completely understand and respond to his expression and the corresponding emotions.”

“He did not want to make all his friends who helped him, and are helping him, feel embarrassed and have misunderstandings, for example, the U.S. Embassy's help in the past, he never criticized it, on the contrary, he is only grateful for it. Thank you everyone,” Guo said.

Guo declined to comment to NBC News.

Gu Bo, of NBC News, other NBC News staff, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Bin Laden fretted about al-Qaida affiliates' missteps, letters show
• Blind activist Chen Guangcheng: 'I want to leave China on Hillary Clinton's plane'
• 'A little fixing up'? Philippines hides slum behind wall ahead of poverty conference
• Sarkozy fails to floor Hollande in France election television debate
• Has Britain's Prime Minister Cameron lost his gloss? Voters issue their verdict
• Catholic priest: I've been secretly married for a year
• Five years on, parents of missing Madeleine McCann cling to hope

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

 

UPDATED: 5:36 p.m. ET -- Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng spoke on the telephone during a Congressional Executive Commission on China hearing, asking for help to leave China with his family.

Chen told the commission he would be in a much worse situation had he not been taken into the U.S. embassy, adding that he wanted to thank Secretary of State Hillary Clinton face to face.

Speaking through a translator, Chen said he is concerned about the safety of his mother and brothers, adding he would want to find out how they were doing.

---

Frantic efforts to resolve the diplomatic wrangle surrounding Chen continued in Beijing Thursday after he appealed for asylum following what was described as a "change of heart" over an earlier deal.

U.S. officials said they are still trying to help the lawyer, who says he fears for his family's safety, and denied he was pressured to leave the American Embassy to resettle inside China in exchange for guarantees about his future treatment.

Chen said by telephone from hospital, where he was escorted by U.S. officials and was being treated for a broken foot, that he had changed his mind about the resettlement deal after talking with his wife, who spoke of recent threats made against his family.

In a string of interviews, he said he now wants to leave China as soon as possible. “My fervent hope is that it would be possible for me and my family to leave for the U.S. on Hillary Clinton’s plane,” he told the Daily Beast.

A senior State Department official told reporters on Thursday that officials were "trying to get full, frank and candid conversation with him," adding: "We are not there yet. If he is changing his view, we're starting from square one with the Chinese."

"When we feel that we have a clear view of what his final decision is, we will do what we can to help him achieve that," the official said.

A source familiar with the situation said Chen and his wife appeared to have had "a change of heart" about a deal, agreed on Tuesday, to remain in China after receiving guarantees about their safety.

China censors 'Shawshank' as Clinton heads to Beijing amid dissident drama

"We don't know if there was intimidation or pressure from friends who think he made the wrong choice, or whether he got in the room with his wife and she was looking at a different situation," the source added.

The New York Times reported that the saga leaves Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's scheduled summit meeting in Beijing "under a cloud of confusion."

It reported that the Obama administration was "exposed to criticism from Republicans and human rights groups that it had rushed to resolve a delicate human rights case so that it would not overshadow other matters on the bilateral agenda," such as the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs and China's currency and trade policies.

'I feel unsafe'
Chen, a self-taught legal activist, explained his change of mind: "I feel very unsafe. My rights and safety cannot be assured here," he said. His family, who were with him at the hospital, backed his decision to try to reach the United States, he added.

Blind activist: Chinese officials threatened my wife

The activist, citing descriptions from his wife, Yuan Weijing, said his family had been surrounded by Chinese officials who menaced them and filled the family home. Chen, from a village in rural Shandong province, has two children.

"When I was inside the American Embassy, I didn't have my family, and so I didn't understand some things. After I was able to meet them, my ideas changed."

Gary Locke, the U.S. ambassador, told reporters he could say unequivocally that Chen was never pressured to leave the embassy.

Locke said Chen had two conversations with his wife before agreeing to the original deal on Tuesday. "We waited several minutes and suddenly he jumped up very eager and said 'let's go' in front of many witnesses," the ambassador said.

Clinton urged China to protect human rights but made no specific mention of Chen, whom she had spoken to on Wednesday after he left the embassy.

Blind dissident's case a 'hot potato' for US-China relations

"Of course, as part of our dialogue, the United States raises the importance of human rights and fundamental freedoms," Clinton said. "We believe all governments have to answer our citizens' aspirations for dignity and the rule of law and that no nation can or should deny those rights."

US-China relationship under pressure
Despite Chen's change of heart about staying in China, it was unclear if he would be able to travel to the United States. Having left the Embassy and the protection of U.S. authorities, his fate is now in the hands of the Chinese government.

U.S. officials appeared no longer to be with him on Thursday, with the dissident saying he had still not had an opportunity to explain his change of heart to the U.S. side.

"I hope the U.S. will help me leave immediately. I want to go there for medical treatment," Chen said from the hospital, where a pack of camera crews and reporters was waiting outside, kept away from the entrance by a few police.

Chen, 40, is a legal activist who campaigned against forced abortions under China's "one-child" policy. On April 22, he escaped 19 months of house arrest, during which he and his family faced beatings and threats.

Chen's dramatic escape from house arrest and his flight last week to the U.S. Embassy have made him a symbol of resistance to China's shackles on dissent, and the deal struck by Beijing and Washington would have made him an international test case of how tight or lose those restrictions remain.

Now, however, his change of mind throws not only his own future into doubt but also raises questions about the wider U.S.-China relationship. 

Reuters, The Associated Press, NBC's Kristin Wilson and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Blind China activist: Officials threatened to kill my wife
• Deadly suicide blast in Kabul after Obama leaves
• Catholic priest: I've been secretly married for a year
• New era as Aung San Suu Kyi joins Myanmar parliament
• Bold move as Syria leader makes time for chess
• N. Korea accused of jamming commercial flight signals

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

 

BEIJING – As China prepares to welcome U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday for an annual meeting on important bilateral issues, the focus of her visit has turned to the unresolved plight of Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, now under U.S. diplomatic protection. How will the latest controversy impact China-U.S. ties that are already beset by old and new problems?

Last week, Chen staged a daring escape from house arrest. He traveled 300 miles with the aid of supporters and has reportedly entered the U.S. Embassy in Beijing for protection.

His dramatic feat, despite blindness and 24-hour surveillance by Chinese security guards, has added to embarrassment in Beijing – which was already grappling with the leadership scandal triggered by a former Chinese police chief who tried to seek asylum at a U.S. consulate. In both cases, the United States was sought out as a source of protection.

The case of Cheng, a human rights campaigner who spent four years in prison and the last 19 months under house arrest, is like “a hot potato that the two governments will have to deal with,” according to Professor Jin Canrong, who teaches international relations at the People’s University of China.

---

One of many issues
“There are some people in China who believe that there is some kind of American conspiracy to take advantage of China’s domestic problems to embarrass China, but these people are rather marginalized,”  said Jin, who specializes on China-U.S. relations.

“The mainstream thinking is that certain problems, like the Chen Guangcheng case, can be treated as separate issues, even if they are embarrassing for China in some ways. China’s leaders have learned to accept that China is a big country with so many problems and that some kind of embarrassment is inevitable. [And that] there is no conspiracy behind these issues,” Jin added.

The case of Cheng has only signaled that China and the U.S. are entering a “very difficult period,” he added.

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng escapes from house arrest

“We are facing a trust deficit. Old issues will remain like Taiwan, Tibet and others, but there will be more and more new issues,” he said. He noted greater regional leadership competition between China and U.S., the controversy over China’s military modernization, trade and economic conflicts, and what he called “the greater diversification of Chinese society” that is reshaping China’s domestic politics.

“From a diplomatic perspective, it is better to resolve the Chen Guangcheng case, this headache issue, as soon as possible,” he said.

‘Did not violate Chinese laws’
Surprisingly, a prominent human rights campaigner and a supporter of Chen seemed to echo a similar moderate sentiment.

“I hope that Mrs. Hillary Clinton will not regard the case as a diplomatic crisis,” said Hu Jia, who met Chen after his escape.

Hu, a leading activist who spent more than three years in prison on charges of state security violations, was detained for 24 hours for police investigation after he met Chen. “He hugged me warmly, lifting my feet off the ground,” Hu said of his meeting with Chen.

China censors 'Shawshank' as Clinton heads to Beijing amid dissident drama

In a transcript of a telephone interview with ITV News that was shared with NBC News, Hu Jia made a startling revelation that government authorities hold a benign view of Chen’s escape, too. According to Hu, police investigators said that Chen’s escape and the actions of those who aided him to find U.S. diplomatic protection “did not violate Chinese laws.”

“Therefore, the U.S. government should feel confident about this issue… I want to say to Mrs. Hillary Clinton that she should regard this case as an opportunity, not some kind of trouble,” said Hu.

He said the U.S. should see it as a chance for the U.S. government to urge China to respect human rights and to “use the resolution of the Chen Guangcheng case to boost the confidence of the international community” in China.

Providing more details of his meeting with Chen, Hu said that Chen has “grown more silver hair, his hands were shivering, and there were bruises and injuries caused by climbing over the wall.”

Who is Fu? Chinese exile is 'God's double agent'

Both sides looking for a resolution
Hu said that after Chen entered the U.S. Embassy, China’s Foreign Ministry immediately contacted the U.S. Embassy for “negotiation.” So far, “no concrete results,” he said.

According to one well-informed source with close ties to China's dissident community, there is "lots of pressures" to resolve the case. 

"Chen is demanding protection for himself and his family and respect for his rights, but if that cannot be granted, then he may have no choice but to travel abroad for medical treatment," said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

However, despite various reports that both China and the United States are trying to hammer out a deal to resolve the case ahead of Clinton's visit, a government source said that no breakthrough has been achieved. 

"No news yet," according to the source who also requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.

More on Chen: Video reveals blind Chinese activist's plight