Beijing It didn't surprise many in the Western commentsphere that Hillary Clinton chose Asia for her first destination as Secretary of State. A young Chinese friend here in Beijing, however, was surprised that it wasn't Obama's treasury secretary who was the first to cross the pond (the Pacific is the new pond). But there's nothing like a crisis to rewrite a job description: Clinton's focus in China last week was all economic, encouraging them to keep buying US bonds. Amidst the hubbub that Clinton was zipping up on human rights issues like Tibet to cosey up to the economy which could help hers out of its mess, I can't help but think she's got it right. As she put it, "we pretty much know what they're going to say" on those points.