DATE=12/15/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=YEARENDER CHINA / U-S
NUMBER=5-44993
BYLINE=ROGER WILKISON
DATELINE=BEIJING
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: U-S relations with China took a nosedive this
year after NATO missiles struck the Chinese embassy in
Belgrade. VOA Beijing correspondent Roger Wilkison reports
ties are slowly getting back to normal but could be subject
to new strains as the United States heads into an election
year.
TEXT: After the exchange of visits by Presidents Jiang
Zemin and Bill Clinton in 1997 and 1998 and their
proclamation of a strategic partnership between Washington
and Beijing, U-S-China ties were riding high for a while,
but, in 1999, they went into a downward spiral from which
they have not yet recovered.
Things started going wrong after the western alliance
launched air strikes against Yugoslavia last March to stop
it from persecuting ethnic Albanians in the province of
Kosovo. To China, a country with its own ethnic problems,
that was gross interference in the internal affairs of a
sovereign state. The fact that NATO bypassed the United
Nations Security Council infuriated Beijing, which could
have vetoed the action. Some Chinese officials were left
feeling that their country had little weight in
international affairs.
In April, Premier Zhu Rongji went to Washington with a list
of market opening concessions he thought could pave the way
for China to join the World Trade Organization. But
President Clinton backed away from the deal after
persuading himself that he could not sell it to Congress.
In Chinese eyes, Mr. Zhu was humiliated, and conservatives
at home accused him of selling out to the Americans.
Then came the final humiliation. NATO bombs rained down on
China's Belgrade embassy, killing three people and injuring
27. That prompted violent protests outside U-S diplomatic
missions in China.
/////SOUND: MOBS SCREAMING IN FRONT OF U-S
EMBASSY -ESTABLISH AND FADE/////
With tacit government support, mobs of angry Chinese for
three days hurled stones and paint bombs at the American
Embassy in Beijing. They also destroyed the U-S Consul
General's residence in Chengdu. The United States
apologized for the bombing, saying it was due to a string
of intelligence and targeting blunders. China later
accepted four and a half million dollars from Washington
for the families of those killed or wounded. But Beijing,
until late in the year, was still publicly saying that the
bombing had been deliberate.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger - the most
respected American statesman among Chinese officials - took
a different tack in explaining the bombing.
/////KISSINGER ACTUALITY/////
I regret the bombing of the embassy in Belgrade. I have
said repeatedly that our explanations are so incredible
that they have to be true. Because if we did it
deliberately, we would surely have come with a better
explanation. So I really think it should be treated as a
regrettable and stupid accident no matter how strange the
explanation may sound.
/////END ACTUALITY/////
But China was not about to accept any explanation. It
immediately suspended military contacts and talks on human
rights, arms control, security and Chinese entry into the
World Trade Organization. The bombing fueled a revival of
Chinese nationalism, a deep mistrust of the West -- and in
particular the United States. Bill Jenner, a professor at
the Australian National University in Canberra, says the
bombing also revived a culture of victimization.
/////JENNER ACTUALITY/////
I regard this as a very dangerous tendency. It wasn't so
much a feature of the Mao period, when I think there was
much more national self-confidence and self-respect. I
think the revival of the victimization culture is perhaps a
mark of the weakness of the government at the moment and
the search for external things to blame for the problems
within the society.
/////END ACTUALITY/////
With a sluggish economy and unemployment rising, China's
leaders know they need to open up further to the outside
world and attract more foreign investment to maintain high
growth rates. Presidents Jiang and Clinton met in New
Zealand in September at an Asia-Pacific economic conference
and resolved to re-start talks on China's entry into W-T-O.
Two months later, a landmark deal was announced whereby
China will grant greater access to American goods and
services and agree to play by the rules of international
trade. U-S Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky was
ecstatic.
/////BARSHEFSKY ACTUALITY/////
The United States and China have had a rather tumultuos
relationship -- ups and downs, lots of swings. But an
agreement of this sort, with its breadth, with its scope,
with its emphasis on rule of law, with its consistency with
China's own internal reform process, can help to anchor the
relationship between the United States and China, in a most
fundamental way.
/////END ACTUALITY/////
But there are pitfalls ahead. The trade deal must be
approved by the U-S Congress, which under W-T-O rules, has
to grant permanent normal trading status to Beijing.
Congress is a hotbed of protectionist and anti-Chinese
sentiment. Allegations that China stole U-S nuclear
secrets have whipped up a frenzy of China-bashing. And, as
the United States moves into an election year, China could
become a major issue in domestic politics.
Chinese officials complain that, every time relations with
the United States show signs of improvement, anti-Chinese
elements in Congress try to sabotage ties. Wenran Jiang, a
Chinese political scientist at the University of Alberta in
Canada, argues that, in an election year, it is difficult
for Beijing to have normal ties with Washington.
/////JIANG ACTUALITY/////
The American side will not be stable. The Chinese side,
then, will probably just want to sit through this election
year.
/////END ACTUALITY/////
The congressional vote on the China-U-S trade deal is not
expected until next year. But the longer debate stretches
out, the bigger the chance it has of falling victim to
electoral politics. If Congress turns the deal down,
normalization of China-U-S relations will probably have to
be put on hold until a new administration takes over in
2001. (SIGNED)
NEB/RW/FC
15-Dec-1999 05:17 AM EDT (15-Dec-1999 1017 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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