World Tibet Network News Friday, June 12, 1998

by Sarah Jackson-Han

WASHINGTON, June 11 (AFP) - US President Bill Clinton on Thursday rejected mounting attacks on his China policy and vowed to go ahead with a state visit there this month because "it's the right thing to do." In his first major speech on China in eight months, Clinton rebuffed calls to delay his June 25-July 3 and scrap a planned welcoming ceremony in Tiananmen Square, saying he would defer to Chinese protocol. Clinton's will be the first US president to travel to China after Chinese troops killed hundreds of people as they broke up pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

"I'm going because I think it's the right thing to do for our country," hesaid. "We do not ignore the importance of symbols," Clinton said, alluding to arguments by legislators and activists that visiting Tiananmen Square tacitly condones the 1989 massacre. "But in the end, if the choice is between making a symbolic point and making a real difference, I choose to make the difference," he said in a half-hour speech at the National Geographic Society. It was Clinton's first major speech on US China policy since October, just before Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit. He delivered it amid congressional investigations into his and his party's dealings with China, including allegations that Beijing tried to illegally influence the 1996 election through donations to the Democrats. Congress is also investigating whether an administration waiver allowing a US firm to advise China on launching communications satellites was influenced by campaign contributions or resulted in the transfer of sensitive technologic

al expertise.

Clinton defended his decision to grant that export waiver on Thursday, saying safeguards existed to prevent any assistance to China's missile program. Licensing US commercial satellite launches on Chinese rockets continued under his administration, Clinton said, "for the simple reason that the demand for American satellites far outs trips America's launch capacity, and because others, including Russia and European nations, can do this job at much less cost." Referring to a new nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan, Clinton described China as a critical player in efforts to keep the two longtime rivals in check. "China can choose to be either a part of the problem or a part of the solution," he said, citing its critical role in stopping environmental destruction, international crime, and the spread of deadly weapons. Washington and Beijing "have fundamental differences" on human rights, he said, but insisted that giving a cold shoulder to Chinese authorities would accomplish little on that front. "T

he question we Americans must answer is not whether we support human rights in China -- surely all of us do -- but rather, what is the best way to advance them," Clinton said.

He vowed to press Chinese leaders on human rights and religious freedom, urging that they release jailed dissidents and "take concrete steps to preserve Tibet's cultural, linguistic and religious heritage." But his comments didn't silence critics in Congress. "It's hard to recall a presidential foreign visit ever made under such a dark cloud," said Senator Tim Hutchinson, a Republican from Arkansas, said in a statement. "With four Senate committees investigating technology transfers, a select committee in the House, and the ongoing US Justice Department investigation, this is absolutely the wrong time to take this trip," he said. Senator Paul Wellstone, a Democrat from Minnesota, said he feared the administration was "squandering a tremendous source of leverage" by agree ingto a summit without demanding human rights improvements first. Representative Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, called Clinton's summit agenda "meager" and accused him of ignoring Chinese weapons proliferation and human rights

abuses. But the president got support from Montana Senator Max Baucus, who is accompanying Clinton on the trip. Baucus, a Democrat and a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, said the United States should stick to a "hands-on" approach to China. "Those who would isolate China are taking the easy way out," he said.