PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Bearing soap, bottled water and other much-needed supplies, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton flew into this ruined capital on Saturday and told the Haitian people that the United States "will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead."

As the United States struggles to organize a relief effort for a barely functioning Haitian government, Mrs. Clinton said she was here at the invitation of the country's president and came in large part to hear his thoughts on what was needed.

Mrs. Clinton arrived shortly before 3 p.m. on a Coast Guard cargo plane that also carried American relief workers. She met for an hour with the Haitian president, Rene Preval, and with American officials managing an immense rescue effort that is racing against the clock to unearth any remaining survivors.

"We are here at the invitation of your government to help you," she said to Haitian journalists outside a makeshift headquarters.

"I know of the great resilience and strength of the Haitian people," said Mrs. Clinton, who in the past visited the country with her husband when they were newlyweds. "You have been severely tested, but I believe that Haiti can come back even stronger and better in the future."

Mr. Preval, in shirtsleeves, his black shoes coated with dust, expressed gratitude to President Obama for his initial pledge of $100 million in American aid, as well as for organizing a national fund-raising campaign.

"Mrs. Clinton's visit really warms our heart today," Mr. Preval said over a din of helicopters landing on a nearby runway, "but especially to restate the priorities and the needs and the coordination that needs to be done."

Though the visit is mainly intended as a show of American support for Haiti, Mrs. Clinton said there were a few tangible benefits. In addition to bringing in supplies, her C-130 plane evacuated 50 Haitian Americans who were stranded here - including a baby who was sleeping soundly in a crib before takeoff despite the roar of the aircraft engines.

She was also able to deliver some goods to American diplomats. The night before her flight, Mrs. Clinton's senior staff members prowled the aisles of supermarkets and drug stores buying bulk supplies of toothpaste, mustard, even cigarettes.

Although Mrs. Clinton said that the relief effort was gaining traction, she cautioned that the security situation was growing troubling. She said she hoped the Haitian government would pass an emergency decree - something it did after storms devastated the island in 2008 - which would give it the legal power to impose curfews and other measures.

"The decree would give the government an enormous amount of authority, which in practice they would delegate to us," Mrs. Clinton said.

Mrs. Clinton said she was concerned by a report on CNN that a group of Miami doctors at a makeshift hospital here had been forced to flee, leaving behind their patients, after gunshots were heard in the vicinity. With Haiti's police force decimated and barely visible on the streets, 7,000 United Nations peacekeepers constitute the only genuine security presence.

"We are working to back them up, but not to supplant them," she said. Up to 10,000 American troops are expected to be in place in Haiti, on shore and off, by Monday.

She said the peacekeepers "have been here for years; they have a command and control established."

Mrs. Clinton also said she was sensitive to the suggestion that her visit could impede rescue efforts. She did not leave the airport during her four-hour stop, canceling a visit to United Nations peacekeeping headquarters.

The secretary of state was accompanied by Rajiv Shah, the new administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, who is coordinating the American relief effort, and Cheryl D. Mills, Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff, who oversees Haiti issues at the State Department.

Herby Derenoncourt, a Haitian doctor with Catholic Relief Services who lives in the United States, was able to ride on the secretary of state's plane. He came to help restore a damaged Catholic hospital here.

Dominic Crowley, the emergency director of the charity Concern Worldwide who was also on the flight, said he was going to check on his staff of 100 in Haiti, of whom 19 members were still missing. The group is handing out clothing, water and other goods. "Agencies with teams on the ground have been as traumatized as anyone else," he said.

Some of the tasks the United States faces are particularly grim, like helping set up morgues. There are deep cultural issues about treatment of the dead, Mrs. Clinton said, which will complicate the task.

Mrs. Clinton said it would be some time before Haiti had a functioning central government; some government buildings are gone, and some officials are dead.

"We have to be realistic about it," she said.

Mrs. Clinton last visited Haiti in April, pledging $300 million in United States aid and venturing into Cite Soleil, a once-lawless part of the capital that had been improving before the quake.

A few months ago, she noted, her husband, who is the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, held a successful conference in Port-au-Prince, attracting 500 foreign companies.

And then, she said, "This happens."

By Mark Landler, The New York Times, January 16, 2010

Taiwan, Tibet, and trade overshadow U.S.-China ties in what many expect to be a testing year

Barely two weeks into the new year, U.S.-China relations are being roiled by old tensions over Taiwan, Tibet and trade, along with new irritations including Google's charges it had been hacked and Pentagon concerns over the People's Liberation Army's massive buildup.

The new friction in what is emerging as the world's most crucial bilateral relationship poses a key test of the depth and resiliency of those ties, along with the pragmatism of their leaders and recognition of their mutual interdependence.

For now, soothing the raw atmosphere surrounding ties may be the two sides' most pressing task.

Allegations this week from Internet giant Google Inc. of hacking from inside China prompted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton say she had of "very serious concerns and questions." Google itself said it will stop censoring its search results in China and may pull out of the country completely - an indication that China's massive market may not be the irresistible draw that it has been.

The sharper tone was also underscored by unusually frank comments from the commander of American forces in the Pacific, who characterized China's massive military buildup as aggressive and aimed at limiting American freedom of movement in the region.

"That there are 'bumps in the road' not far ahead is self-evident," said business consultant Robert Kapp, who headed the U.S.-China Business Council from 1994 through 2004.

"We can't know whether, on each issue, the two sides, in a reasonable amount of time, will be able to find common ground, and what the ramifications of failure are," Kapp said.

Earlier this week, before the Google bombshell, Clinton had downplayed the possibility of a major rift with China, telling reporters on her way to begin an Asian trip that the two had a "mature relationship" that wouldn't "go off the rails when we have differences of opinion."

Chinese leaders have been less outspoken, but scholars with close ties to the government say they don't anticipate current disputes to turn into major problems.

Disagreements are ever-present, but there are "very few chances that they will lead to the actual change in the relationship," said Zhu Feng, professor with School of International Studies at Peking University.

U.S. arms sales to Taiwan will likely be the first trip wire. Washington has approved a $6.5 billion package that includes helicopters, PAC-3 air defense missiles, and a possible design study for building submarines.

The weapons announcement has sparked repeated complaints from Beijing, which regards the self-governing island democracy as its own territory to be unified by force if necessary. China has responded to previous Taiwan arms sales announcements by suspending military contacts.

A Chinese missile test on Monday is already being interpreted as a deliberate show of anger over the sale, according to analysts.

That was Beijing's way of "showing it has not only the determination, but the means to protect national security and China's core interests," the official Global Times newspaper quoted Chinese missile expert Yang Chengjun as saying.

The launch adds to steps prompting Pentagon concern, including China's repeated confronting of U.S. Navy surveillance ships in the South China Sea.

Beijing's new military capacities "appear designed to challenge U.S. freedom of action in the region," the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Admiral Robert Willard, said in testimony before Congress on Wednesday.

Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama, possibly coming in May, also threatens to disrupt ties.

China regards the 74-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner as a separatist and protests loudly each time he meets with a foreign head of state. Beijing has punished foreign leaders who meet the Dalai Lama with monthslong rifts in bilateral relations, even canceling a major summit with the European Union after French President Nicolas Sarkozy met him in December 2008.

Obama had put off a meeting until after his visit to Beijing last December, enduring criticism from rights groups in hopes of winning goodwill from Beijing. Instead, China has continued ratcheting up pressure over Tibet and this month pulled two Chinese films from the Palm Springs International Film Festival after failing to force organizers to withdraw a documentary about the Dalai Lama and Tibet.

Trade disputes, meanwhile, have re-emerged as an irritation after fading while the U.S. struggled to contain its domestic economic woes. Already, Obama has responded to pressure from industry groups by slapping antidumping duties on Chinese-made tires and steel pipes, while China's massive trade surplus with the U.S. continues to fuel criticisms over alleged currency manipulation.

The frictions also come amid rising doubts over China's help in resolving disputes with North Korea and Iran that had won Beijing sympathy among some in Washington.

China this month said it opposed new U.N. sanctions against Tehran, while communist North Korea continues to boycott China-sponsored six-nation talks on dismantling its nuclear programs. Such attitudes are bound to further alienate administration officials still stung over the Chinese delegation's perceived snub of Obama at December's climate talks in Copenhagen, and criticism that the president downplayed human rights concerns during his visit to Beijing last year.

China's economic success and rising global clout have convinced its leaders that they can continue defying Washington, but that could prompt a backlash, said Edward Friedman, a China specialist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

"If the Chinese Communist Party regime continues on the path that Hu committed himself to ... then 2010 will bring rockier moments to Beijing-Washington relations," Friedman said.

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, The Associated Press, January 14, 2010

WASHINGTON - President Obama's aggressive response to the deadly earthquake in Haiti has led to criticism from the far right that the United States is taking on too much, at a time when its foreign-policy plate is already full.

But the more relevant question, experts on the region say, is whether the United States will maintain a muscular role in the reconstruction of Haiti once the news cameras go home. The United States has a history of either political domination or neglect in its backyard, and administration officials acknowledge that for Mr. Obama, striking the right balance in Haiti will be crucial.

"The classic U.S. role in the whole hemisphere is either complete neglect, or we come in and run the show," said Sarah Stephens, executive director for the Center for Democracy in the Americas. But with Haiti, a mere 700 miles from Miami, "there is a great opportunity for the United States to do this in a new way," she said.

Mr. Obama has pledged that the United States is in Haiti for the long haul. On Sunday, he mobilized military reserves - particularly medical staff for hospital ships - signing an executive order that said it was necessary to back up active-duty troops "for the effective conduct of operational missions, including those involving humanitarian assistance, related to relief efforts in Haiti."

American troops have taken control of the airport at Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, and are helping to provide security for the enormous international relief effort. A steady stream of administration officials have headed south, from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton -
who cut short a trip to the South Pacific, rushed home, and then flew to Haiti on Saturday - to one of Mr. Obama's closest aides, Denis R. McDonough, the National Security Council's chief of staff.

"We will be here today, tomorrow, and for the time ahead," Mrs. Clinton said to Haitian journalists in Port-au-Prince, standing alongside President Rene Perval.

With so many others in the Haitian government missing or dead, the Obama administration is already facing questions of whether the United States is the only entity capable of bringing order to Port-au-Prince. Beyond that is the question of whether Mr. Obama can handle Haiti at a time when he is already grappling with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The short answer is yes," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois and a frequent visitor to Haiti. "As challenging as it is, there is no question about it straining our capacities at home. This is a tiny country. It's close, and it's not going to be our job alone to rebuild."

Mr. Obama has indicated that the amount the United States has pledged so far to Haiti, $100 million, is bound to go up significantly. Still, it is well below the $350 million that President Bush pledged in the early weeks of the Asian tsunami, which killed 226,000 people after it struck in December 2004.

And while Mr. Obama has increased the number of American troops in Afghanistan by 30,000 to just below 100,000, and promised ambitious efforts to stabilize Yemen and Pakistan, the number of American troops being sent to Haiti is of course smaller - some 10,000 Marines and soldiers by Monday, military officials said.

The bigger issue may be sustaining the effort. In 2009, much of the administration's energy was focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, with little time on this hemisphere. The administration's new point man for Latin America and the Caribbean - Arturo Valenzuela, the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere - was confirmed only in November.

In the past, American interest in Haiti has waxed and waned. President Clinton sent 20,000 troops there in 1994 to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, an intervention still viewed today as producing, at best, mixed results.

If Haiti's only problem were poverty, American officials discovered at the time, the job of building its economy would have been one thing. But endemic government corruption and a history of post-colonial abandonment left Haiti in shambles 10 years later, when Mr. Aristide was finally driven from power in 2004.

In the years since 1994, Haiti has resurfaced in the American conscience only during times of crisis: the Aristide meltdown; and after four devastating storms in 2008 that wiped out most of the country's food crops and damaged irrigation systems, causing acute hunger for millions.

Some Haiti experts say that despite the criticism from conservative commentators - Glenn Beck complained that Mr. Obama spent more time reacting to the Haiti earthquake than he did to the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack - the heart-rending tragedy in Haiti may make it impossible for the United States to ignore it once the news media attention goes away.

Mr. McDonough, the national security aide, spoke to that in a call with reporters on Sunday, saying that the administration was determined to do everything it could to alleviate the suffering in Haiti. "The more we hear criticism, the more we are intent on trying to improve the lot of the Haitian people," he said.

What is more, the administration and the international community appear to be uniform in their belief that Mr. Preval, unlike Mr. Artistide, is someone with whom they can deal. They credit him with taking steps in recent years to develop the economy.

Mrs. Clinton said a major reason for her four-hour visit to Port-au-Prince was to buck up Mr. Preval. At one point on Saturday, the Haitian president walked through the makeshift American command center at the airport, appearing dazed by the clamor.

But he seemed comforted by the presence of Cheryl D. Mills, Mrs. Clinton's chief of staff, who is in charge of the Haiti portfolio at the State Department and who has made multiple visits to Port-au-Prince over the last few months.

Administration officials say the White House can handle Haiti without neglecting its other concerns. They noted that Mr. Obama convened a National Security Council on meeting on Friday to discuss the implementation of his new Afghanistan policy.

"It's only a problem if the whole government isn't functioning properly," a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to publicly discuss internal matters. "What you see here is a good example of the government functioning well."

By Helene Cooper and Mark Landler, The New York Times, January 17, 2010

Reporting from Washington -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, maintaining that "the next 24 hours is critical" to saving victims of the Haitian earthquake, says American forces are moving in as swiftly as possible.

"It's a devastating situation," she said today in an appearance on CNN. "But we've got a very coordinated, aggressive response going on. We've sent some of our crack search and rescue teams in."

"We're going to be there for the long term," Clinton said in another appearance on MSNBC. "This is going to be a full-court press."

The State Department already has raised $3 million for the Red Cross with a text-messaging line for $10 donations, Clinton said today. People can text "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10.

It is too early to offer a reliable estimate of the extent of casualties in Haiti, Clinton said.

"I don't want to hazard a guess," she said on MSNBC. "We know it's going to be in the tens of thousands."

Clinton, who cut short her own Pacific tour this week to return to the State Department today, said the U.S. is supplying a communications system and working with the United Nations, "which was equally devastated.... We're going to support them as they reestablish authority."

The Coast Guard's response has been "unbelievable," Clinton said in the CNN interview. "There is an enormous amount of work going on... But I think we have a long way ahead of us.

"The next 24 hours is critical to save those who can be saved," she said on CNN. "But then we have a long way ahead of us to deal with the loss of life and infrastructure."

The U.S. is sending in medical personnel. An aircraft carrier is on the way. The U.S. is sending 2,000 Marines to work with international peacekeepers who have served as the security force in the absence of an army.

"This is a country that has suffered so many blows. Last year it was four hurricanes, this year an earthquake," Clinton said. "In the wake of disasters like this, people do get desperate.... We're moving as quickly as we can go."

The State Department has a toll-free telephone hotline for people looking for information about relatives: 888-407-4747.

By Mark Silva, Los Angeles Times, January 14, 2010

HONOLULU -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that she would cancel the remainder of her trip to the Asia-Pacific region because of the earthquake in Haiti, returning to Washington to help to coordinate the U.S. response to the disaster.

Clinton initially intended to continue her trip and to visit Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia. But spending five hours of consultations with world leaders, and as the extent of the devastation in Haiti became clearer, the secretary said she would return home.

Clinton called the earthquake a disaster of "unimaginable" proportions, and compared it to the 2004 tsunami that rocked Asia. "The scope of it is just overwhelming," she said.

Clinton was visibly shaken early Wednesday when she talked to reporters about the earthquake. She and her husband, Bill, honeymooned on Hispaniola decades ago, and Bill Clinton is the U.N. special envoy to Haiti.

"It is biblical the tragedy that continues to stalk Haiti and the Haitian people," she said. "It is so tragic. They had the four hurricanes last year. We had a good plan, we were feeling positive about how we could implement that plan."

And then, she said, "along comes Mother Nature and just flattens the whole place."

"We're going to give the people of Haiti the support they need as they go through yet another catastrophe," she said.

More than 45,000 American citizens are in Haiti, Clinton said. Already the U.S. Coast Guard has evacuated several seriously injured U.S. citizens to the military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"We are working as actively as we possibly can under extremely challenging circumstances," she said. "The United States is fully committed; the military is fully committed, and we're going to do everything we can to try and save as many lives and to help bring about an orderly environment in which aid and reconstruction can take place."

Clinton said the U.S. Embassy in Haiti "is working, given the communications challenges."

"We've had a number of Americans and Haitians showing up at the American Embassy seeking help," she said. Medical supplies at the embassy have been exhausted.

"Our ambassador has been trapped in his own home," she added, but the embassy's charge d'affairs was able to communicate.

Clinton said she called the leaders of Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia and they were understanding.

She said in Washington she would work to an coordinate international response.

By John Pomfret, The Washington Post, January 13, 2010

President Obama mobilized the U.S. government Wednesday for a massive rescue and relief operation in the devastated capital of Haiti, ordering swift military and diplomatic assistance and pledging an aggressive effort to save the lives of those caught in Tuesday's earthquake.

Naval ships steamed south and flights began shuttling search-and-rescue teams to dig through rubble in Port-au-Prince. Military aircraft flew over the island, mapping the destruction, while U.S. officials coordinated the efforts of nongovernmental aid agencies. Coast Guard helicopters began flying seriously wounded Americans from the U.S. Embassy on the island nation to the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, about 200 miles away.

"With just a few hundred miles of ocean between us and a long history that binds us together, Haitians are neighbors of the Americas and here at home," Obama said, calling the earthquake an "especially cruel and incomprehensible tragedy."

The U.S. government's response accelerated Wednesday as the extent of the disaster became clear. Obama canceled a speech on job creation as his top advisers huddled in the White House Situation Room throughout the day.

But even as U.S. agencies lined up to help, officials sounded a note of concern, saying they are deeply worried about whether Haiti's infrastructure can handle the influx of help. The island's airport and seaport sustained substantial damage in the temblor.

"If the port is severely damaged, that makes it very, very difficult" to deliver relief supplies, said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. James A. "Jim" Watson IV, director of Atlantic area operations.

Charities large and small also mobilized Wednesday to help. World Vision staff members worked to move blankets, bottled water and other relief supplies. The American Red Cross promised tarps, mosquito nets and cooking sets for 5,000 families from a warehouse in Panama. And churches and small nonprofits called in volunteers and collected canned goods.

Response from donors was swift.

Charities set up Twitter alerts, Facebook groups and text-message donation numbers. By early Wednesday evening, more than $1 million had been raised for the Red Cross, $10 at a time, by people texting "Haiti" to 90999. The World Bank announced $100 million in emergency grant funding. Ted Turner, who created the U.N. Foundation, announced a $1 million commitment to the relief effort. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced $10 million.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates canceled trips to Australia to help coordinate the U.S. response in the Caribbean. Clinton, who honeymooned on the island of Hispaniola decades ago and whose husband, Bill Clinton, is the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, was visibly shaken as she spoke in Hawaii about the devastation.

"It is biblical, the tragedy that continues to stalk Haiti and the Haitian people," she said, adding that the recovery from four hurricanes in 2008 had begun to take hold when "along comes Mother Nature and just flattens the whole place." Clinton, who had planned to go on to the South Pacific, will now return to Washington immediately, aides say.

U.S. officials expressed particular concern about the 172 Americans posted at the embassy, and about the roughly 45,000 Americans who live in Haiti, few of whom had been in contact with officials by midday. The embassy building is one of a handful that were relatively unscathed, officials said, and is serving as the center of the U.S. relief effort.

"We've received a number of reports of injured U.S. citizens," Cheryl D. Mills, the chief of staff at the State Department, told reporters. Almost all of the embassy workers have been accounted for, she said.

Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the overall coordinator of U.S. relief efforts for Haiti, said a 15-member Disaster Assistance Response Team was to be in the country by Wednesday evening to conduct surveillance that can guide governmental and private relief efforts.

Those teams will be quickly followed by two 72-member urban rescue units from Fairfax County and Los Angeles. Another crisis team from Miami also mobilized Wednesday, to be followed by more search-and-rescue operations put together by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Shah said.

Military officials at the U.S. Southern Command said they began moving ships toward Haiti as they braced for a long recovery.

Officials ordered the hospital ship USNS Comfort -- which aided Haiti after hurricanes struck Port-au-Prince two years ago -- to dock off the coast and assist the sick and wounded. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, based at Norfolk, is scheduled to arrive in Haiti on Thursday afternoon, said Gen. Douglas M. Fraser, the head of Southern Command.

Fraser said the carrier has less than its full complement of sailors, Marines and equipment, but it will take on helicopters and provisions as it heads south.

The Navy also ordered the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan to Haiti with about 2,000 Marines to help the country maintain security.

Military officials said their first mission will be setting up a temporary air traffic control system to replace the damaged tower at the nation's airport. Coast Guard operations were focused on establishing broad sea-lift capacity at Port-au-Prince's seaport.

Four Coast Guard C-130 aircraft will be made available to State Department workers and others for logistical needs, including evacuations, Watson said. The service was also prepared to move two more cutters, the Tahoma from Guantanamo Bay, and the Vigorous, a three-day trip from South Florida, to the area.

White House officials warned against people or groups trying to enter the country in an effort to lend a hand. Given the fluid situation in Haiti, it is not "helpful to have massive waves of uncoordinated relief arriving," White House official Patrick Gaspard -- the most prominent Haitian American in the Obama administration -- said in a conference call with organizations.

By Michael D. Shear, The Washington Post, January 14, 2010