Applauding the selection of Liu Xiaobo as the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, Secretary Clinton urged China "to uphold its international human rights obligations and to respect the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all Chinese citizens." She also demanded "Liu Xiaobo's immediate release from prison."

Clinton's statement today is refreshing after remarks she made in February 2009 that  seemed to place human rights in China as a back-burner priority. At the time she said, "[O]ur pressing on those [human rights] issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis, and the security crisis."

Below is Clinton's complete statement, issued today:

I applaud the Nobel Committee's decision to award this year's Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo. Throughout its history, the Peace Prize has often been used to recognize the heroism of those who have, through persistent and peaceful efforts, sought to build a world that is more fair and free.

Mr. Liu has been a consistent advocate for fundamental freedoms and human rights for his fellow citizens and for peaceful political reform. Mr. Liu's work, including his role in the drafting of Charter '08, and his receipt of this honor highlight the fact that while China has made tremendous economic progress in the last three decades, political reform has lagged behind. As I said in Krakow this summer, governments should recognize the constructive role that citizens such as Liu Xiaobo play. We urge China to uphold its international human rights obligations and to respect the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all Chinese citizens. We reiterate our call for Liu Xiaobo's immediate release from prison.

Japan's new first lady, Nobuko Kan, has been affectionately called by the country's ruling-party lawmakers "the Japanese Hillary" because she had been a "brilliant campaigner" for her husband, as Singapore's Straits Times put it. She also spends a lot of time at home debating politics with her husband, Naoto Kan, now the prime minister. She once said of her husband during a TV interview, "He is a good debater in parliament because he is well trained at home."

Nevertheless, Nobuko Kan rejects the comparison to Hillary Clinton. While in Toronto this weekend for the G-20 summit (as seen above with her husband, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Canadian first lady Laureen Harper), she told the Global and Mail of Canada through an interpreter:

"I am the opposition party within my family, so we spend a lot of time discussing politics at home and that's probably the reason people equate me as 'Hillary of Japan,' but I'm very different from Ms. Clinton."

One similarity though: Just as Hillary Clinton took up health-care reform as first lady, Kan has her own issue she's pushing: doing away with sales taxes on produce and medicines.

Remember when Bill Clinton traveled to North Korea last August to rescue imprisoned journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee? Well, yesterday Ling had a baby girl, People magazine reports, and Ling and her husband Iain Clayton named her "Li Jefferson Clayton." The infant's middle name is a tribute to William Jefferson Clinton! The first name "Li" is a tribute to Ling's sister Lisa Ling, a former co-host on The View. Explaining the choice of middle name, first-time mom Ling told People:

He has checked in on me several times to see how I'm doing … and has been so concerned and caring. He's such a wonderful human being." 

Aaaww! Congratulations, Laura!

In the photo above, Clinton and Al Gore greet Laura Ling, second right, and Euna Lee at the airport in Burbank, Calif., on Aug. 5, 2009, after they were freed from North Korea. 

From Secretary Clinton's news conference today in Seoul with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan, it appears that the reaction to North Korea's attack on the Cheonan will be stern words, some sort of U.N. Security Council action (sanctions?), and joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises. It seems a somewhat weak response given that a country deliberately attacked a ship and killed 46 sailors, all unprovoked. But on the other hand, what can you really do, especially if you're South Korea, bordering the crazy North? As Clinton said, the attack "requires a strong but measured response."

A snippet from Clinton at the news conference:

Over the last week I have consulted with leaders in Japan and China, and we have stayed in close contact with our friends here in Seoul about the best way forward. We will be working together to chart a course of action in the United Nations Security Council, and I want to acknowledge Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's strong statement on this issue.

The U.S. and South Korean militaries have announced plans for joint exercises, and we will explore further enhancements to our posture on the Peninsula, to ensure readiness, and to deter future attacks. The United States is also reviewing additional options and authorities to hold North Korea and its leaders accountable. We call on North Korea to halt its provocation and its policy of threats and belligerence toward its neighbors, and take steps now to fulfill its denuclearization commitments, and comply with international law. 

Secretary Clinton, as seen above, stressed cooperation during the opening session of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing yesterday: 

The United States welcomes China's progress and its accomplishments. And by establishing patterns of cooperation, rather than competition between our two countries, we see the opportunity, as we have just heard from Vice-Premier Wang, for win-win solutions, rather than zero-sum rivalries, for we know that few global problems can be solved by the United States or China acting alone. And few can be solved without the United States and China working together.

Secretary Clinton had stern words today regarding the torpedoing of the South Korean ship Cheonan in March. At a news conference, seen above, with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in Tokyo, she named North Korea as the culprit and said the attack will not "go unanswered":

I think it is important to send a clear message to North Korea that provocative actions have consequences. We cannot allow this attack on South Korea to go unanswered by the international community.

She also said:

[L]et me be clear. This will not be and cannot be business as usual. There must be an international -- not just a regional, but an international -- response.

Regarding North Korea as the culprit, she said:

The evidence is overwhelming and condemning. The torpedo that sunk the Cheonan and took the lives of 46 South Korean sailors was fired by a North Korean submarine. And the United States strongly condemns this act of aggression. As Minister Okada and I discussed, we will be in deep and constant consultations, not only between the United States and Japan, but also with South Korea, China, and others to determine our response. 

And just what will the response be? When someone from the U.S. media corps asked her, Clinton replied that she will be consulting with officials in Japan, China, and South Korea and said:

It is premature for me, at this moment, to announce options or actions without that level of consultation among the regional nations that are most directly affected by North Korea's behavior.

How do you think the international community should respond? How do you think it will respond? Seoul doesn't want to be decimated; the United States is bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq. Will it all be just more harsh words? 

This morning, Secretary Clinton attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Korean War Memorial here in Washington, D.C., to mark the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War in 1950. As seen above and below, she attended with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who is in town for the nuclear security summit.

Today in her speech on Internet freedom, Secretary Clinton declared:

I hope that refusal to support politically motivated censorship will become a trademark characteristic of American technology companies. … It should be part of our national brand." 

She had some tough talk, saying:

Countries or individuals that engage in cyberattacks should face consequences and international condemnation."

She also said:

In an interconnected world, an attack on one nation's networks can be an attack on all."

Clinton took a tough stance, as she ought to have. So many of us rely so much on the Internet, and cyberattackers thousands of miles away can wreak so much havoc with just a few clicks.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government isn't too happy 

Referencing Google's donations to Obama's campaigns, an editorial in the Chinese government-controlled Global Times yesterday labeled the U.S. administration as "Government Google" and stated:

The world's top search engine, once hailed by many Chinese as a flagship of global innovation, is now on the brink of being made a political football played by the White House, and has aroused strong, hostile reactions from some Chinese users."

LifeNews.com, which describes itself as a news agency that brings "pro-life news to the pro-life community," has highlighted an important comment that Secretary Clinton made in her recent interview with the New York Times. In discussing women's rights, she said:

Obviously, there’s work to be done in both India and China, because the infanticide rate of girl babies is still overwhelmingly high, and unfortunately with technology, parents are able to use sonograms to determine the sex of a baby, and to abort girl children simply because they’d rather have a boy. And those are deeply set attitudes. But at the governmental level, there is a great deal of openness and commitment that I am seeing."

Clinton's comments on this deplorable practice are commendable, though she left out some nuance when she said parents do it "simply because they'd rather have a boy." Often, it's a matter of economics: Boys bring wealth into a family, and girls drain tons of money out. Sons earn more money and financially support their elderly parents in communities where nothing like Social Security exists. Meanwhile, in India, parents must pay enormous, financially crippling dowries when their daughters get married. Absolutely none of this morally justifies sex-selective abortion, but these are issues that must be addressed in order to eradicate this shameful practice.

(Obviously, other factors -- such as family and social pressure -- are at play, too. Sex-selective abortion in India has been found to occur at higher rates among more educated people, presumably because they're more likely to be able to afford an ultrasound exam and abortion.)

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Secretary Clinton will be in the spotlight, literally, this Sunday morning. Back from Asia, she'll be on NBC's Meet the Press for the entire hour!

•Speaking of the spotlight, a New York Times headline today declares: "Asia Trip Propels Clinton Back into Limelight." (And yes, I know that many of you say she never ever was out of the limelight -- the "shadows" thing was all concocted.)

•Clinton has just "taken Asia by storm" with a tour that is "undeniably a success in public-relations and policy terms," a college professor writes in a Scripps Howard News Service op-ed.

•Clinton is viewed as the most intelligent first lady in a Harris Poll that asked about 11 first ladies from Eleanor Roosevelt through Michelle Obama (minus Elizabeth Truman and Mamie Eisenhower for some reason). Regarding the 11 first ladies, 29 percent of respondents said Clinton was most intelligent; Roosevelt was second with 13 percent, and Obama was third with 11 percent.

•Regarding this week's verbal jousting between Clinton and North Korea, a Washington Post Style article compares Clinton to the archetypal schoolyard "overachiever" and North Korea to the schoolyard's "socially inept loner."

•Hillary fans aren't going to like this one: A Boston Globe editorial accuses Clinton of "rookie mistakes" during her Asia trip.

Photo: INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images

Once again, I only have time to offer a quick roundup of Hillary Clinton news. I've been ordered to prioritize copy-editing articles for the print edition of FP, so unfortunately Madam Secretary is "lite" today.

•"The United States is back," Clinton said upon arrival in Thailand for the ASEAN meeting in Phuket. "I believe strongly the United States has to be involved in this region," she declared, referring to Asia.

•Clinton suggested that the United States is considering extending a "defense umbrella" over the Persian Gulf region to deter Iran's nuclear ambitions.

•Clinton urged Burma to release democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, saying it would pave the way for a better U.S.-Burma relationship, including investments.

•Clinton is expected to be made special envoy to Northern Ireland.

•A Hillary Clinton effigy was burned in India in protest of the frisking of a former Indian president by Continental Airlines. (How ridiculous!)

•Clinton and President Obama might have "inflated hopes" about global cooperation, writes Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Trudy Rubin.

Photo: BAZUKI MUHAMMAD/AFP/Getty Images

Secretary Clinton and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, above, discussed North Korea's "bad behavior" during their bilateral in Washington yesterday.

A statement issued be Lee's office said that Clinton advocated for cooperation among the United States, South Korea, and Japan in implementing U.N. sanctions to "get North Korea to realize that its bad behavior will bring due consequences."

The statement said that Lee told Clinton that "as long as the United States and its allies maintain a firm stance, North Korea's belief that it will be rewarded for its bad behavior if it waits long enough will dissipate."

Today, Clinton will attend an expanded bilateral with Lee and President Obama, and enjoy a working lunch with the South Korean president.

Below, Clinton and Lee engaged in "hug diplomacy" when she greeted him at the Blair House, the presidential guesthouse.

Photos: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

China has expressed "strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition" to Secretary Clinton's statements marking the 20th anniversary of the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protesters. (In the photo above, the People's Liberation Army guards a street leading to Tiananmen Square on June 6, 1989, two days after the infamous crackdown.)

On June 3, Clinton called on the Chinese government to "provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal." She also said China should "give the rule of law, protection of internationally-recognized human rights, and democratic development the same priority as it has given to economic reform."

In response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman criticized Clinton for "crudely meddling in Chinese domestic affairs." He also said, "We urge the United States to forsake its prejudices, correct its erroneous ways and avoid obstructing and damaging China-U.S. relations."

The Chinese government has never published a count of those who died. A New York Times article yesterday stated that hundreds died.

The bold tone of Clinton's remarks are a contrast to those she made in February, in which she seemed to downplay human rights as a priority.

Photo: MANUEL CENETA/AFP/Getty Images

Secretary Clinton delivered even more testimony today, speaking about the State Department's FY2009 supplemental appropriations request, as seen in the photo above. Her schedule today:

9:00 a.m. Testimony before House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2359.

2:30 p.m. Bilateral with His Excellency Kasit Piromya, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand.

3:25 p.m. Welcome Children of Department Employees, “Take Your Child to Work Day,” Acheson Auditorium.

4:00 p.m. Meeting with President Obama and Vice President Biden

Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images