WASHINGTON - President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin concluded a summit meeting yesterday by reaching agreements on a broad range of security, economic, environmental and law-enforcement issues, even as they acknowledged stark and seemingly irreconcilable differences over human rights.
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The summit, the first between the United States and China since 1989, culminated a long effort to restore relations disrupted by Beijing's crackdown that year on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. At a news conference with Jiang, Clinton hailed the outcome as offering "the opportunity and responsibility to build a future that is more secure, more peaceful, more prosperous for both our people."
Yet the human rights issue, which both leaders had sought to prevent from dominating the agenda, surfaced vividly during the press conference, when Jiang defended the crackdown and Clinton, standing stiffly at his side, replied that on human rights China is "on the wrong side of history."
On other subjects, the summit meeting gave both leaders much of what they said they wanted. Clinton won Chinese commitments to cooperate with the United States on a range of issues and move closer to full participation in global arrangments for arms control and trade.
And Jiang, who has sought the international status achieved by the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping during a U.S. visit nearly two decades ago, got the red-carpet welcome and 21-gun salute he had coveted. The day was crowned by a White House state dinner attended by American executives of some of the world's richest corporations, a testament to China's growing clout as an emerging economic power.
In their private conversation, as described by senior officials, and in their news conference, Clinton and Jiang struck opposing positions on the question of individual freedoms and the right of political dissent. Jiang publicly defended the 1989 crackdown by saying that "the Chinese Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have long drawn the correct conclusion on this political disturbance."
Despite this unusual display of discord between heads of state who otherwise were proclaiming their mutual esteem, the summit unfolded mostly along the lines senior administration officials had predicted. The overall result appears to be the one Clinton wanted: a network of expanding political, military and economic ties that could usher in a new era of cooperation between two countries long at odds.
The two presidents said in a joint statement that despite their differences they "are determined to build toward a constructive strategic partnership ... through increasing cooperation to meeting international challenges and promote peace and development in the world" - a declaration that hardly seemed possible just two years ago, when relations bottomed out over disagreements about Taiwan.
Clinton and Jiang agreed to "regular visits to each other's capitals," beginning with a return visit to Beijing by Clinton next year. According to White House National Security Adviser Samual Sandy Berger, the two have already achieved "greater ease of communication, less stiffness, less polemics in how they talk" than was evident during four previous encounters at international gatherings.
"A lot has been accomplished at this summit," Berger said. "I think there's been significant, solid progress in a lot of areas."
Some of the agreements are concrete, such as China's commitment to purchase 50 jetliners from the Boeing Co. for about $3 billion and allow the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to open an office in Beijing. Others are amorphous, such as an agreement to cooperate in meeting China's skyrocketing demand for electricity while reducing its critical air pollution problem.
As expected, Clinton announced he is satisified China has taken sufficient steps to curb the export of nuclear materials to Iran that he will permit U.S. firms to export nuclear power reactors to China. The decision was sharply denounced by some members of Congress even before it was made official.
If the first U.S.-China summit in 12 years lacked the drama of Cold War encounters with Soviet leaders, that is just the way the president and his foreign policy team wanted it.
Senior officials said they had no desire to reprise those tense sessions of yesteryear, when outcomes were often uncertain and the overriding concern was to stave off nuclear holocaust. China and the United States are not adversaries, officials said, and the purpose of this summit was more to nurture a long-term cooperative relationship than to achieve breakthroughs.
Jiang, who is having a banner year after the smooth return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in July, seemed willing to give Clinton what he sought, provided that the United States accept "the principles of mutual respect, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit."
To the Chinese, the issue of political dissent and the question of Taiwan are both "internal affairs." China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province destined to be reunited some day with the mainland, as Hong Kong was in July, and Clinton said he will "adhere strictly to the one-China policy."
In advance of the meeting, U.S. officials said the fact it was to be held carried greater weight than any specific agreements it might produce. "This is already a successful summit because we wanted them to meet," Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said while Jiang was still in Williamsburg, Va., on his way to Washington.
10-30-97
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