World Tibet Network News Friday, Jul 03, 1998

By Andrew Browne

BEIJING, July 3 (Reuters) - The same Chinese television station that brought chilling news of martial law ahead of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown sprang a surprise on U.S. President Bill Clinton. China Central Television (CCTV) put Clinton live on air with President Jiang Zemin after their summit last Saturday. And via a channel that pipes propaganda to hundreds of millions of Chinese, Clinton declared that the Tiananmen killings were "wrong." "I think I was, I was a little surprised -- yes," Clinton later confessed in an interview with CCTV. So, as Clinton leaves China with more ammunition to face his anti-Beijing critics at home, the question is: what new surprises does China have in store? Dialogue with the Tibetan Dalai Lama? A breakthrough on Taiwan? Political reform? New trade concessions? Or was the surprise that caught Clinton off-guard a crafty summit tactic? Beijing achieved much at the first China-U.S. summit on home turf since 1989 with its astonishing show of openness that grabbed favourabl

e headlines in the United States. But in reality it gave away very little. Its biggest concession, an agreement for both sides to point their nuclear missiles away from each other, can be reversed with a turn of a screw.

Meanwhile, the doors to dissidents' prison cells remain locked. Chinese markets are no more open. Beijing is no more committed -- at least on paper -- to weapons non-proliferation. While Clinton's aides have been able to trumpet the televised news conference with Jiang -- and two other live media spots -- as a big win for the U.S. president, it was also a triumph for Jiang. Sparring with Jiang in the media ring, Clinton delivered his best shot, and Jiang did not flinch. To many Chinese eyes, Jiang came across as strong and confident. "I believe, and the American people believe, that the use of force and the tragic loss of life was wrong," said Clinton, in a polite but firm rebuke for the 1989 massacre of hundreds of pro-democracy students. The crackdown, insisted Jiang, ensured stability. Indeed, stability was the message that Jiang successfully conveyed by handing Clinton a microphone and the state propaganda machinery. The implication was that nothing Clinton said could rock the boat.

Jiang's gesture said much about new personal freedoms in China even though, as one Amnesty International official said, "people can be jailed in Chinafor saying a lot less." "We've seen some remarkable television diplomacy," said Rory Mungoven, Amnesty's Asia director. "Let's just hope the televisions are on in theprisons." Hopes in the West for democratic reform in China have been dashed often in the past. Still, some speculate that Jiang might have had a hidden agenda by allowing Clinton to break political taboos on Tiananmen, as well as Tibet. Clinton urged Jiang to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Chinese leaders are obsessed with shows of unity, and sometimes use foreigners to stir things up by mouthing criticisms and implanting new ideas. In that light, it is conceivable that Jiang may have been using Clinton to test the waters for a new look at the Tiananmen crackdown, possibly leading to a wider political opening. For now, such speculation may be pure fantasy.

The social stability that Jiang seemed keen to showcase will be sorely tested as China makes wrenching economic reforms, throwing millions out of work. Another crackdown cannot beruled out. But China has been full of surprises lately -- most of them pleasant ones. It has chipped in to an International Monetary Fund rescue package for financially-battered Asia.

It has resisted the urge to devalue its currency, which could deepen Asia's woes and spread the region's misery to other parts of the world. And Beijing has proved Western sceptics wrong by keeping its hands off Hong Kong in the first year of an experiment with its "one country, two systems" concept. Its stature in Asia is rising, just when Japan's reputation is sinking as itdithers over measures to revive its economy. Beijing has given Clinton plenty of good reasons to pursue his policy of engagement with China. For Clinton, the visit resulted in clear gains. After a shaky start when Chinese police, true to form, rounded up dissidents in the ancient capital Xi'an, the trip built momentum. A youthful-looking U.S. president eloquently and vigorously argued his case to the Chinese public that they could not hope to prosper in the information age without "free minds." He avoided hectoring or finger-wagging. Towards the end of his nine-day visit, the first by a U.S. president since the Tiananmen massacre, Clinto

n was enjoying his new status as a media celebrity. On a Shanghai radio phone-in show he donned earphones and bantered with callers about everything from the soccer World Cup to golf and the internal combustion engine. His famously seductive personality seemed to work magic with Jiang.

Together, they conducted the People's Liberation Army band at a state banquet. After that kind of performance, even his harshest critics seemed to recognise that criticism of his visit -- which they had said would only white wash China's human rights record -- would appear churlish. "He redeemed his trip, but not his China policy," said Congress woman Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. China, in its own terms, gave Clinton "face." It may have calculated he needed a boost as he returns to a hostile Congress to do battle over allegations of illegal Chinese donations to the Democratic Party and transfers of missile technology. In the meantime, the Chinese dissidents who are not in jail are breathing easier. Some say the U.S. president may have made a difference. "Clinton's visit was like a gust of fresh wind that blew towards us," said Zhu Yufu, an activist in the eastern city of Hangzhou who was detained for 47 hours while the U.S. president was in China. "When there's wind blowing, there will be changes. Mo

uld will die," he said.