By Gene Kramer
Associated Press Writer
From: World Tibet Network News, Tuesday, August 22, 1995
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ideally, for first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Americans, attending a conference in China could be the adventure of a lifetime: sightseeing at the Great Wall and Forbidden City combined with important discussions.
But the Fourth United Nations Conference on Women opening in two weeks in Beijing looks to some like a political minefield for visitors and perhaps even for the hosts.
Mrs. Clinton was advised Sunday by two Republican senators who want her husband's job to pass up the meeting for which she has been named honorary chairman of the U.S. official delegation.
Sens. Bob Dole of Kansas and Richard Lugar of Indiana said Mrs. Clinton's presence in Beijing would not help U.S.-Chinese relations, which have been on a downward slide.
U.S. delegates and observers reported cliff-hanging delays getting Chinese entry visas and room bookings. They blame both administrative overload and suspected attempts to exclude those who plan to attack Chinese practices such as forced labor and birth control.
Non-government delegates learned that their unofficial gathering, traditionally held parallel to major U.N. conferences, will be at Hairou, 35 miles outside Beijing, which can accommodate only 10,000 of the 38,000 who are applying from around the world. Representatives of Tibet, human rights groups and various religious groups reported denials or long delays on visas.
Lugar, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Mrs. Clinton's presence probably "would make no difference to the Chinese, (who) find that whole conference troublesome."
By now, China's communist government may regret seeking the gathering for prestige reasons, Lugar suggested. "The women coming in they see as a threat to their regime. ... Probably Mrs. Clinton should not go. I think it ... makes another ambiguity out of a very difficult situation."
Dole, the Senate majority leader, said he's already written Mrs. Clinton that she should stay home. He accused Democrats of blocking a congressional resolution against her attendance.
"I don't see any useful purpose" for Mrs. Clinton to attend, Dole said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"Certainly she's very bright, very articulate, but ... as long as they are retaining an American prisoner there, Harry Wu, and as long as there are other human rights abuses ... in China, I think it would be a mistake," he said. Wu is a Chinese-American who has visited his homeland to collect evidence of forced labor and other human rights abuses.
Mrs. Clinton discussed with top administration officials last week pros and cons of her visiting Beijing. The decision is expected this week.
China has recalled its ambassador and interrupted some ongoing talks with the United States to demonstrate outrage over President Clinton's granting a visa for the president of Taiwan to make a private visit in June to Cornell University, his alma mater.
The United States has criticized China for testing nuclear weapons on the eve of negotiations on a comprehensive test ban treaty, and for staging artillery exercises near the Taiwan coast.
U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright, working head of the U.S. delegation to the conference, said last week Americans would press strongly for agreements on legal equality and human rights for women. And she said they'll take up previously taboo subjects, such as violence against women and "the despicable notion that rape is just another tactic of war."
Adding to tension, U.S. abortion foes and Muslim groups last week joined forces to charge that radical feminists who minimize family and spiritual values will dominate the conference and the official U.S. delegation.
"This conference will be a taxpayer-funded promotion of abortion, lesbianism and other left-wing crusades, ... all issues that have nothing to do with helping women," Beverly LaHaye, president of the conservative organization Concerned Women for America, said in a press statement.
