This week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton administered some tough love from the Mideast to the Far East.

Friday New York Times piece:

Clinton Bluntly Presses Arab Leaders on Reform

DOHA, Qatar — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a scalding critique of Arab leaders here on Thursday, saying their countries risked “sinking into the sand” of unrest and extremism unless they liberalized their political systems and cleaned up their economies.

Speaking at a conference in this gleaming Persian Gulf emirate, Mrs. Clinton recited a familiar litany of ills: corruption, repression and a lack of rights for women and religious minorities. But her remarks were striking for their vehemence, and they suggested a frustration that the Obama administration’s message to the Arab world had not gotten through.

Ditto for the diplomatic can of whup-ass Clinton opened on China in a speech she gave Friday.

Via Reuters:

U.S.-China summit must deliver real results: Clinton

(Reuters) – U.S.-China relations are at a critical juncture and a summit between their leaders next week must produce “real action, on real issues” such as trade, climate change and North Korean nuclear proliferation, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

“It is up to both nations to translate the high-level pledges of summits and state visits into action. Real action, on real issues,” she said in a major China policy address.

Clinton urged China to let its currency appreciate faster, end discrimination against foreign companies and further open its markets to U.S. manufactured goods and farm products.

Clinton also – surprisingly – whacked Chinese officials over their dismal human-rights record.

Friday Vancouver Sun piece:

UNITED NATIONS — Just days before China’s president visits the United States, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday delivered Washington’s laundry list of beefs with Beijing, but said the U.S. has no intention of shrinking from a policy of engagement with the world’s most populous country.

Most controversially from the Chinese perspective, Clinton admonished Beijing about its poor human-rights record as she repeated Washington’s call for China to release Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and other political prisoners.

The Chinese dissident, imprisoned for his efforts to promote democracy, was awarded his Nobel in absentia in December.

“I know that many in China, not just in the government but in the population at large, resent or reject our advocacy of human rights as an intrusion on sovereignty,” Clinton said.

“But . . . when China lives up to (its) obligations of respecting and protecting universal human rights, it will not only benefit more than one billion people, it will also benefit the long-term peace, stability and prosperity of China.”

Of course, given that China holds almost a trillion dollars in US debt, it would probably benefit the long-term peace, stability and prosperity of America not to piss off the Chinese.

Which is exactly how they keep getting away with egregious human-rights violations.