June 11, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Message Creation Date was at 11-JUN-1998 11:42:00
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate
Release
June 11, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
National Geographic Society
Washington, D.C.
10:32 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, President Fahey. I don't know what to
say about starting the day with this apparition. (Laughter.) But it's
probably good practice for our line of work. (Laughter.) I try to read every
issue of the National Geographic, and I will certainly look forward to that one.
Chairman Grosvenor, members of Congress, members of the administration, and
members of previous administrations who are here and others who care about the
national security and national interests of the United States. First let me,
once again, thank the National Geographic Society for its hospitality, and for
the very important work that has done for so long now.
As all of you know, I will go to China in two weeks time. It will be the
first state visit by an American President this decade. I'm going because I
think it's the right thing to do for our country. Today I want to talk with
you about our relationship with China and how it fits into our broader concerns
for the world of the 21st century and our concerns, in particular, for
developments in Asia. That relationship will in large measure help to
determine whether the new century is one of security, peace, and prosperity for
the American people.
Let me say that, all of you know the dimensions, but I think it is worth
repeating a few of the facts about China. It is already the world's most
populous nation; it will increase by the size of America's current population
every 20 years. It's vast territory borders 15 countries. It has one of the
fastest growing economies on Earth. It holds a permanent seat on the National
Security Council of the United Nations. Over the past 25 years, it has entered
a period of profound change, emerging from isolation, turning a closed economy
into an engine for growth, increasing cooperation with the rest of the world,
raising the standard of living for hundreds of millions of its citizens.
The role China chooses to play in preventing the spread of weapons of mass
destruction are encouraging it in combatting or ignoring international crime
and drug trafficking; in protecting or degrading the environment; in tearing
down or building up trade barriers; in respecting or abusing human rights; in
resolving difficult situations in Asia from the Indian subcontinent to the
Korean Peninsula or aggravating them. The role China chooses to play will
powerfully shape the next century.
A stable, open, prosperous China that assumes its responsibilities for
building a more peaceful world is clearly and profoundly in our interests. On
that point all Americans agree. But as we all know, there is serious
disagreement over how best to encourage the emergence of that kind of China,
and how to handle our differences, especially over human rights, in the
meantime.
Some Americans believe we should try to isolate and contain China because of
its undemocratic system and human rights violation, and in order to retard its
capacity to become America's next great enemy. Some believe increased
commercial dealings alone will inevitably lead to a more open, more democratic
China.
We have chosen a different course that I believe to be both principled and
pragmatic: expanding our areas of cooperation with China while dealing
forthrightly with our differences. This policy is supported by our key
democratic allies in Asia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Thailand, the
Philippines. It has recently been publicly endorsed by a number of
distinguished religious leaders, including Reverend Billy Graham and the Dalai
Lama. My trip has been recently supported by political opponents of the
current Chinese government, including most recently, Wang Dan.
There is a reason for this. Seeking to isolate China is clearly unworkable.
Even our friends and allies around the world do not support us -- or would not
support us in that. We would succeed instead in isolating ourselves and our
own policy.
Most important, choosing isolation over engagement would not make the world
safer. It would make it more dangerous. It would undermine rather than
strengthen our efforts to foster stability in Asia. It would eliminate, not
facilitate cooperation on issues relating to mass destruction. It would
hinder, not help the cause of democracy and human rights in China. It would
set back, not step up worldwide efforts to protect the environment. It would
cut off, not open up one of the world's most important markets. It would
encourage the Chinese to turn inward and to act in opposition to our interests
and values.
Consider the areas that matter most to America's peace, prosperity and
security, and ask yourselves, would our interests and ideals be better served
by advancing our work with, or isolating ourselves from China.
First, think about our interests in a stable Asia, an interest that China
shares. The nuclear threats -- excuse me -- the nuclear tests by India and
Pakistan are a threat to the stability we seek. They risk a terrible outcome.
A miscalculation between two adversaries with large armies would be bad. A
miscalculation between two adversaries with nuclear weapons could be
catastrophic. These tests were all the more unfortunate because they divert
precious resources from countries with unlimited potential.
India is a very great nation, soon to be not only the world's most populous
democracy, but its most populous country. It is home to the world's largest
middle class already and a remarkable culture that taught the modern world the
power of nonviolence. For 50 years Pakistan has been a vibrant Islamic state,
and is today a robust democracy. It is important for the world to recognize
the remarkable contributions both these countries have made and will continue
to make to the community of nations if they can proceed along the path of peace.
It is important for the world to recognize that both India and Pakistan have
security concerns that are legitimate. But it is equally important for India
and Pakistan to recognize that developing weapons of mass destruction is the
wrong way to define their greatness, to protect their security, or to advance
their concerns.
I believe that we now have a self-defeating, dangerous, and costly course
underway. I believe that this course, if continued, not moderated and
ultimately changed, will make both the people of Indian and the people of
Pakistan poorer, not richer, and less, not more, secure. Resolving this
requires us to cooperate with China.
Last week, China chaired a meeting of the permanent members of the U.N.
Security Council to forge a common strategy for moving India and Pakistan back
from the nuclear arms race edge. It has condemned both countries for
conducting nuclear tests. It has joined us in urging them to conduct no more
tests, to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, to avoid deploying or testing
missiles, to tone down the rhetoric, to work to resolve their differences
including over Kashmir through dialogue. Because of its history with both
countries, China must be a part of any ultimate resolution of this matter.
On the Korean Peninsula, China has become a force for peace and stability,
helping us to convince North Korea to freeze its dangerous nuclear program,
playing a constructive role in the four-party peace talks. And China has been
a helpful partner in international efforts to stabilize the Asian financial
crisis. In resisting the temptation to devalue its currency, China has seen
that its own interests lie in preventing another round of competitive
devaluations that would have severely damaged prospects for regional recovery.
It has also contributed to the rescue packages for affected economies.
Now, for each of these problems we should ask ourselves, are we better off
working with China or without it? When I travel to China this month, I will
work with President Jiang to advance our Asian security agenda, keeping the
pressure on India and Pakistan to curb their nuclear arms race and to commence
a dialogue; using the strength of our economies and our influence to bolster
Asian economies battered by the economic crisis; and discussing steps we can
take to advance peace and security on the Korean Peninsula. I will encourage
President Jiang to pursue the cross-strait discussion the PRC recently resumed
with Taiwan, and where we have already seen a reduction in tensions.
Second, stopping the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons is
clearly one of our most urgent security challenges. As a nuclear power with
increasingly sophisticated industrial and technological capabilities, China can
choose either to be a part of the problem or a part of the solution.
For years, China stood outside the international arms control regime. In the
last decade it has joined the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Chemical
Weapons Convention, the Biological Weapons Convention, and the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty, each with clear rules, reporting requirements and inspection
systems. In the past, China has been a major exporter of sophisticated
weapons-related technologies. That is why in virtually all our high-level
contacts with China's leadership, and in my summit meeting with President Jiang
last October, nonproliferation has been high on the agenda.
Had we been trying to isolate China rather than work with it, would China have
agreed to stop assistance to Iran for its nuclear program,? To terminate its
assistance to unsafeguarded nuclear facilities such as those in Pakistan? To
tighten its export control system, to sell no more anti-ship cruise missiles to
Iran? These vital decisions were all in our interest, and they clearly were
the fruit of our engagement.
I will continue to press China on proliferation. I will seek stronger
controls on the sale of missiles, missile technology, dual-use products, and
chemical and biological weapons. I will argue that it is in China's interest,
because the spread of weapons and technologies would increasingly destabilize
areas near China's own borders.
Third, the United States has a profound stake in combatting international
organized crime and drug trafficking. International criminal syndicates
threaten to undermine confidence in new but fragile market democracies. They
bilk people out of billions of dollars and bring violence and despair to our
schools and neighborhoods. These are problems from which none of us are
isolated and which, as I said at the United Nations a few days ago, no nation
is so big it can fight alone.
With a land mass spanning from Russia in the north to Vietnam and Thailand in
the south, from India and Pakistan in the west to Korea and Japan in the east,
China has become a transshipment point for drugs and the proceeds of illegal
activities. Last month a special liaison group that President Jiang and I
established brought together leading Chinese and American law enforcement
officials to step up our cooperation against organized crime, alien smuggling,
and counterfeiting.
Next month the Drug Enforcement Agency of the United States will open an
office in Beijing. Here, too, pursuing practical cooperation with China is
making a difference for America's future.
Fourth, China and the United States share the same global environment, an
interest in preserving it for this and future generations. China is
experiencing an environmental crisis perhaps greater than any other nation in
history at a comparable stage of its development. Every substantial body of
water in China is polluted. In many places, water is in short supply.
Respiratory illness is the number one health problem for China's people because
of air pollution.
Early in the next century, China will surpass the United States as the world's
largest emitter of greenhouse gases, which are dangerously warming our planet.
This matters profoundly to the American people, because what comes out of a
smokestack or goes into a river in China can do grievous harm beyond its
borders. It is a fool's errand to believe that we can deal with our present
and future global environmental challenges without strong cooperation with
China.
A year ago, the Vice President launched a dialogue with the Chinese on the
environment to help them pursue growth and protect the environment at the same
time. I have to tell you that this is one of the central challenges we face --
convincing all developing nations, but especially China, and other very large
ones, that it is actually possible to grow their economies in the 21st century
without following the pattern of energy use and environmental damages that
characterize economic growth in this century. And we need all the help we can
to make that case.
In Beijing, I will explore with President Jiang how American clean energy
technology can help to improve air quality and bring electricity to more of
China's rural residents. We will discuss innovative tools for financing clean
energy development that were established under the Kyoto climate change
agreement.
Fifth, America clearly benefits from an increasingly free, fair and open
global trading system. Over the past six years, trade has generated more than
one-third of the remarkable economic growth we have enjoyed. If we are to
continue generating 20 percent of the world's wealth with just four percent of
its population, we must continue to trade with the other 96 percent of the
people with whom we share this small planet.
One in every four people is Chinese. And China boasts a growth rate that has
averaged 10 percent for the past 20 years. Over the next 20 years, it is
projected that the developing economies will grow at three times the rate of
the already developed economies. It is manifestly, therefore, in our interest
to bring the Chinese people more and more fully into the global trading system
to get the benefits and share the responsibilities of emerging economic
prosperity.
Already China is one of the fastest growing markets for our goods and
services. As we look into the next century, it will clearly support hundreds
of thousands of jobs all across our country. But access to China's markets
also remains restricted for many of our companies and products. What is the
best way to level the playing field? We could erect trade barriers. We could
deny China the normal trading status we give to so many other countries with
whom we have significant disagreements. But that would only penalize our
consumers, invite retaliation from China on $13 billion in United States
exports, and create a self-defeating cycle of protectionism that the world has
seen before.
Or we can continue to press China to open its markets -- it's goods markets,
its services markets, its agricultural markets -- as it engages in sweeping
economic reform. We can work toward China's admission to the WTO on
commercially meaningful terms, where it will be subject to international rules
of free and fair trade. And we can renew normal trade treatment for China, as
every President has done since 1980, strengthening instead of undermining our
economic relationship.
In each of these crucial areas, working with China is the best way to advance
our interests. But we also know that how China evolves inside its borders will
influence how it acts beyond them. We, therefore, have a profound interest in
encouraging China to embrace the ideals upon which our nation was founded and
which have now been universally embraced -- the right to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness; to debate, dissent, associate and worship without state
interference. These ideas are now the birthright of people everywhere, a part
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They are part of the fabric of
all truly free societies.
We have a fundamental difference with China's leadership over this. The
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. By integrating China into the community of nations and the global
economy, helping its leadership understand that greater freedom profoundly
serves China's interests, and standing up for our principles, we can most
effectively serve the cause of democracy and human rights within China.
Over time, the more we bring China into the world the more the world will
bring freedom to China. China's remarkable economic growth is making China
more and more dependent on other nations for investment, for markets, for
energy, for ideas. These ties increase the need for the stronger rule of law,
openness, and accountability. And they carry with them powerful agents of
change -- fax machines and photocopiers, computers and the Internet. Over the
past decade the number of mobile phones has jumped from 50,000 to more than 13
million in China, and China is heading from about 400,000 Internet accounts
last year to more than 20 million early in the next century. Already, one in
five residents in Beijing has access to satellite transmissions. Some of the
American satellites China sends into space beam CNN and other independent
sources of news and ideas into China.
The licensing of American commercial satellite launches on Chinese rockets was
approved by President Reagan, begun by President Bush, continued under my
administration, for the simple reason that the demand for American satellites
far out-strips America's launch capacity, and because others, including Russian
and European nations, can do this job at much less cost.
It is important for every American to understand that there are strict
safeguards, including a Department of Defense plan for each launch, to prevent
any assistance to China's missile programs. Licensing these launches allows us
to meet the demand for American satellites and helps people on every continent
share ideas, information, and images, through television, cell phones, and
pagers. In the case of China, the policy also furthers our efforts to stop the
spread of missile technology by providing China incentives to observe
nonproliferation agreements. This policy clearly has served our national
interests.
Over time, I believe China's leaders must accept freedom's progress because
China can only reach its full potential if its people are free to reach theirs.
In the Information Age, the wealth of any nation, including China, lies in its
people -- in their capacity to create, to communicate, to innovate. The
Chinese people must have the freedom to speak, to publish, to associate, to
worship without fear of reprisal. Only then will China reach its full
potential for growth and greatness.
I have told President Jiang that when it comes to human rights and religious
freedom, China remains on the wrong side of history. Unlike some, I do not
believe increased commercial dealings alone will inevitably lead to greater
openness and freedom. We must work to speed history's course. Complacency or
silence would run counter to everything we stand for as Americans. It would
deny those fighting for human rights and religious freedom inside China the
outside support that is a source of strength and comfort. Indeed, one of the
most important benefits of our engagement with China is that it gives us an
effective means to urge China's leaders publicly and privately to change
course.
Our message remains strong and constant: Do not arrest people for their
political beliefs. Release those who are in jail for that reason. Renounce
coercive population control practices. Resume your dialogue with the Dalai
Lama. Allow people to worship when, where, and how they choose. And recognize
that our relationship simply cannot reach its full potential so long as Chinese
people are denied fundamental human rights.
In support of that message, we are strengthening Radio Free Asia. We are
working with China to expand the rule of law and civil society programs in
China so that rights already on the books there can become rights in reality.
This principled, pragmatic approach has produced significant results, although
still far from enough. Over the past year, China has released from jail two
prominent dissidents -- Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan -- and Catholic Bishop
Zeng. It announced its intention to sign the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, which will subject China's human rights practices to
regular scrutiny by independent international observers. President Jiang
received a delegation of prominent American religious leaders and invited them
to visit Tibet.
Seeking to isolate China will not free one more political dissident, will not
open one more church to those who wish to worship, will do nothing to encourage
China to live by the laws it has written. Instead, it will limit our ability
to advance human rights and religious and political freedom.
When I travel to China I will take part in an official greeting ceremony in
front of the Great Hall of the People, across from Tiananmen Square. I will do
so because that is where the Chinese government receives visiting heads of
state and government, including President Chirac of France and, most recently,
Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. Some have suggested I should refuse to
take part in this traditional ceremony, that somehow going there would absolve
the Chinese government of its responsibility for the terrible killings at
Tiananmen Square nine years ago, or indicate that America is no longer
concerned about such conduct. They are wrong.
Protocol and honoring a nation's traditional practices should not be confused
with principle. China's leaders, as I have repeatedly said, can only move
beyond the events of June 1989, when they recognize the reality that what the
government did was wrong. Sooner or later they must do that. And, perhaps
even more important, they must change course on this fundamentally important
issue.
In my meetings with President Jiang and other Chinese leaders, and in my
discussions with the Chinese people I will press ahead on human rights and
religious freedom, urging that China follow through on its intention to sign
the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, that it release more individuals in
prison for expressing their opinions, that it take concrete steps to preserve
Tibet's cultural, linguistic, and religious heritage.
We do not ignore the value of symbols. But, in the end, if the choice is
between making a symbolic point and making a real difference, I choose to make
the difference. And when it comes to advancing human rights and religious
freedom, dealing directly and speaking honestly to the Chinese is clearly the
best way to make a difference.
China has known more millennia than the United States has known centuries.
But for more than 220 years, we have been conducting a great experiment in
democracy. We must never lose confidence in the power of American experience
or the strength of our example. The more we share our ideas with the world,
the more the world will come to share the ideals that animate America. And
they will become the aspirations of people everywhere.
I should also say we should never lose sight of the fact that we have never
succeeded in perfectly realizing our ideals here at home. That calls for a
little bit of humility and continued efforts on our part on the home front.
China will choose its own destiny, but we can influence that choice by making
the right choice ourselves -- working with China where we can, dealing directly
with our differences where we must. Bringing China into the community of
nations rather than trying to shut it out is plainly the best way to advance
both our interests and our values. It is the best way to encourage China to
follow the path of stability, openness, nonaggression; to embrace free markets,
political pluralism, the rule of law; to join us in building a stable
international order where free people can make the most of their lives and give
vent to their children's dreams.
That kind of China, rather than one turned inward and confrontational, is
profoundly in our interests. That kind of China can help to shape a 21st
century that is the most peaceful and prosperous era the world has ever known.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END 11:00 A.M. EDT
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