A summit meeting in the U.S. between President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin should only take place if Beijing agrees to take credible steps to improve human rights. Human Rights Watch/Asia today called on Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Foreign Minister Qian Qichen to make human rights in China and Tibet an urgent priority when they meet in New York.

"The Clinton Administration should extend the carrot' of a summit meeting only on the basis of concrete actions by China on human rights," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington Director of Human Rights Watch/Asia. "Hillary Clinton's strong statements about human rights at the Beijing women's conference will mean little if only weeks later the President of China is welcomed to the U.S. without having made significant progress."

A summit meeting between President Clinton and President Jiang Zemin in Washington, DC or New York has been under discussion at least since early August, when Secretary Christopher raised the possibility during a meeting with his counterpart in Brunei. On August 27, U.S. Under Secretary of State Peter Tarnoff ended a visit to Beijing by saying that both governments were committed to preparing for a presidential summit in October, despite the fact that "fundamental differences" remained unresolved, including on human rights. President Jiang is due to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York on October 24 during the U.N.'s 50th anniversary commemorations.

Since the last meeting between Christopher and Qian on August 1, 1995, the crackdown on political activists that began this spring has continued, and China's leaders have done nothing to ease their hard-line attitude towards peaceful dissent. For example, on September 1, Liu Gang, a former student leader who was released last June after spending six years in prison, was again detained for ten days. In advance of the United Nations Conference on Women, a number of political activists were put under house arrest, others such as Dai Qing and Tong Zeng were "invited" to leave the city , while others were detained. Prof. Ding Zilin and her husband, Prof. Jiang Peikun, both professors at People's University in Beijing and leaders of a group of victims of the June 1989 massacre, were detained in Wuxi on August 18, 1995 and are still being held. There have been unconfirmed reports of a renewed crackdown on unofficial Catholic clergy, including the reported detention on August 27 of Bishop Han Dingxiang in Hebei Prov

ince.

In addition, since early August there have been no moves by the Chinese government to release Gao Yu, Bao Tong, Chen Ziming and other prisoners on medical grounds, despite their serious health problems. China's most prominent pro-democracy activist, Wei Jingsheng, has not been seen or heard from since his detention in April, 1994; Wei has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for 1995, due to be awarded next month.

Human Rights Watch/Asia welcomed the release of Harry Wu, but asserts that his release is hardly a sign of Beijing's commitment to improve human rights when Chinese dissidents continue to be detained, arrested and tortured. If China agrees to resume a "dialogue" with the U.S. on human rights, this will not be sufficient grounds to reward President Jiang with a summit meeting. "We're not against dialogue, but it must be accompanied by concrete action. Otherwise, there's a danger that both governments will simply use a dialogue' as a way to deflect criticism of their human rights policies," said Jendrzejczyk.

Human Rights Watch/Asia urges the Administration to use the prospect of a high-level meeting to press the Chinese government to take at least some of the following steps before agreeing to a summit:

-- release large numbers of political, religious and labor dissidents;

-- enact major legal reforms such as abolishing all "counterrevolutionary" offenses, revoking the 1993 state security law, or ending all restrictions on freedom of religion;

-- open Tibet to unrestricted monitoring by independent human rights organizations;

-- invite the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit China and Tibet to undertake investigations and make recommendations.

Human Rights Watch/Asia did not oppose bilateral discussions between President Clinton and President Jiang in the context of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forums in Seattle and Indonesia in 1993 and 1994, but a summit meeting in the U.S. would carry enormous prestige value and would be a major propaganda opportunity for Beijing.

Human Rights Watch/Asia

Human Rights Watch is a nongovernmental organization established in 1978 to monitor and promote the observance of internationally recognized human rights in Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and among the signatories of the Helsinki accords. It is supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. It accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly. The staff includes Kenneth Roth, executive director; Cynthia Brown, program director; Holly J. Burkhalter, advocacy director; Robert Kimzey, publications director; Jeri Laber, special advisor; Gara LaMarche, associate director; Lotte Leicht, Brussels office director; Juan Mndez, general counsel; Susan Osnos, communications director; Jemera Rone, counsel; Joanna Weschler, United Nations representative; and Derrick Wong, finance and administration director. Robert L. Bernstein is the chair of the board and Adrian W. DeWind is vice chair. Its Asia division was established in 1985 to monitor and promote the observance of inter

nationally recognized human rights in Asia. Sidney Jones is the executive director; Mike Jendrzejczyk is the Washington director; Robin Munro is the Hong Kong director; Jeannine Guthrie is NGO Liaison; Dinah PoKempner is Counsel; Patricia Gossman and Zunetta Liddell are research associates; Mark Girouard and Shu-Ju Ada Cheng are Henry R. Luce Fellows; Diana Tai-Feng Cheng and Jennifer Hyman are associates; Mickey Spiegel is a research consultant. Andrew J. Nathan is chair of the advisory committee and Orville Schell is vice chair.