美国国防部长帕内塔与中国领导人习近平9月份会面时，他听到了“令人吃惊的要求 ” — —美国应该置身中日纠纷之外，事实上，在9月份精心安排的中国反日游行期间，帕内塔并没有建议中国压制通常导致暴力的示威活动，而是公开重申美国在钓鱼岛纠纷中的中立态度。
When US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in China in September, he got “an earful” that the US should stay out of the Sino-Japanese dispute. Indeed, amid the orchestrated anti-Japanese protests in China in September, Panetta – instead of advising China to rein in the often-violent demonstrations – publicly reiterated America’s neutrality in the struggle over control of the islands.