CHINA MOVES SLOWLY ON PROPOSALS BY U.S.

By Steven Eralnger

The New York Times, Tuesday August 19, 1997

Visiting China last week, President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, made his best case to President Jiang Zemin about how to produce a substantive and image-enhancing summit meeting in Washington at the end of October. But the Chinese are still debating necessary steps on human rights and nonproliferation, senior U.S. officials say.

In public, Mr. Berger is playing down the prospect of "dramatic breakthroughs" during the long-anticipated meeting, scheduled Oct. 28. But in China, he laid out various initiatives that Mr. Jiang could take to make the meeting more successful by attracting fewer protesters and muting congressional criticism.

Those steps include the completion of a "road map" on human rights issues, which would include the release from prison on medical grounds of such noted dissidents as Wang Dan and Wei Jingsheng and an agreement to let the International Committee of the Red Cross make prison visits in China. It also would require China to resume a serious human rights dialogue with U.S. officials and nongovernmental organizations, to invite noted American religions leaders to visit China, to sign a United Nations covenant on social and economic rights and to agree to a frank discussion by Mr. Jiang of all issues with congressional leaders. Chinese leaders, at their summer retreat, are hammering out key personnel changes before next month's party congress, which is held every five years. They must decide who will replace the conservative Li Peng, who has completed his term as prime minister, and what job Mr. Li will receive. But the Chinese are also discussing summit meeting issues, U.S. officials say. They add that Mr. Jiang

is eager to have a useful and substantive but noncontroversial state visit to the United States to help seal his supremacy at home after the death of Deng Xiaoping. "We're throwing ideas at them and suggesting how to bridge the gaps toward some real agreements," a senior official said. "They've got some things to think over. " China's continued pattern of jailing political dissidents and leaders of religions groups not sanctioned by the government has drawn considerable anger among both human rights groups and members of Congress. And the FBI is investigating allegations that the Chinese funnelled money into the 1996 election campaign. "Berger made crystal clear the difficulty Jiang will face in the U.S. in terms of public, media and congressional reaction, especially about human rights and religion," said another senior official. "He pitched it in terms of things they should be thinking about now to make the summit better, arguing that they should think of the summit as starting now and ending Oct.30." The

Chinese leaders engaged "in great detail" in "a clear, candid discussion, with questions," another official said. "I think Jiang gets it. " The Chinese complained to Mr. Berger about pervasive anti-China sentiments in Congress, the officials said, and again denied that the Chinese government illegally funnelled money into the 1996 U.S. election. They alsourged Mr. Berger to stem support in Washington for a more independent Taiwan including offering it a United Nations seat. Mr. Clinton is hoping that he will get sufficient grounds for certifying that China is now careful enough about nuclear exports that a 1985 nuclear cooperation agreement can finally go into effect. The pact would allow such U.S. companies as Westinghouse and General Electric to sell commercial nuclear equipment to China, including reactors. U.S. officials say much progress has been made on the nuclear issue, especially during Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's fourth meeting this year with the Chinese foreign minister, Qian Qichen.

The meeting was held last month in Malaysia. But snags remain. The United States first wants to ensure that China will not share any nuclear equipment, technology or training with Pakistan or Iran. A combination of U.S. pressure and a poor Iranian payment history led China recently to suspend a sale of two nuclear reactors, and it appears to have cancelled the sale of a uranium-conversion facility that particularly worried Washington. China has kept to its 1996 deal with the United States not to assist any unsafeguarded nuclear program, meaning Pakistan. But China has not yet put into place effective export controls for nuclear materials, components and especially dual-use materials - which could be used either for peaceful purposes or a weapons program. In August, the Chinese State Council approved a national export control program in principle, the officials say, but the Americans are pressing China hard to put the program into effect and to develop a similar set of controls on dual use items. Finally, the

Americans want China to take part in a nuclear nonproliferation committee of equipment suppliers, known as the Zanger committee, that prepares lists of equipment that should not be exported. Mr. Qian told Mrs. albright last month that China would join and attend its first such meeting in October, the officials said. In the past, the United States has imposed sanctions on China for nuclear and missile sales to Pakistan and Iran. On May 21, after many warnings, it imposed sanctions on some Chinese chemical companies for knowingly selling Iran materials that can be used to make chemical weapons. The United States is also concerned about sales to Iran of Chinese anti-ship cruise missiles.