Clinton's China policy is problematic<\/p>\n
By Jeffrey Parker<\/p>\n
BEIJING (Reuter): U.S. President Bill Clinton's controversial
\npolicy of \"constructive engagement\" toward China has engendered
\nties that analysts say look more like a heavyweight brawl than
\nthe gentle art of diplomacy.<\/p>\n
The Pacific giants struck a deal on Sunday ending a festering
\nrow over copyright piracy in China, pulling back from the brink
\nof a trade war just hours after the expiry of a deadline for
\npunishing mutual economic sanctions.<\/p>\n
But even before negotiators had agreed on how to word the
\nhard-won mutual concessions, Beijing was already launching a
\nsweeping diplomatic counter-offensive against what it regards as
\nWashington's unfair criticisms on human rights.<\/p>\n
A major cabinet statement rebutted U.S. allegations that
\nBeijing violates citizens' human rights and attacked what it
\ncalled serious human rights lapses in the United States.<\/p>\n
Calling such combativeness unsurprising, analysts said it
\nshowed China's desire to talk, but also its refusal to be a
\npushover merely because Clinton's \"constructive engagement\"
\npolicy had ended Beijing's diplomatic exile after it crushed the
\nTiananmen pro-democracy movement on June 4, 1989.<\/p>\n
\"The Chinese are saying, 'Okay, fine, we'll engage with you --
\nbut we also know what our interests are',\" U.S. business
\nconsultant and China watcher Steve Rasin said.<\/p>\n
\"They do not see constructive engagement as a gift.\"<\/p>\n
Clinton adopted the policy in May 1994, alienating many
\ncritics in both parties with his decision to delink trade
\nrelations from demands for progress in human rights.<\/p>\n
\"It is silly of the United States to think that it somehow
\ncould change Chinese policies fundamentally through the carrot or
\nthe stick,\" Rasin said.<\/p>\n
\"This is the beginning of what will be a very difficult
\nperiod,\" he said. \"China recognizes its own interests in terms of
\nintegration with the world economy. But they have a lot to learn
\nas far as how to project their power without being too blunt
\nabout it.\"<\/p>\n
Tough bargaining is expected in most areas of bilateral
\nfriction -- whether it is arms exports, moves to ban nuclear
\nweapons or human rights.<\/p>\n
An influential state-run business daily used far blunter words
\nto describe China's view of constructive engagement.<\/p>\n
\"Fight, fight, talk, talk will become normal,\" China
\nSecurities said in a Feb. 8 commentary.<\/p>\n
Experts say bare-knuckled relations with an increasingly
\nassertive China are better than the destabilizing political
\nestrangement that followed the Tiananmen crackdown.<\/p>\n
\"To try to engage China is not only a viable option but the
\nonly option,\" Rasin said.<\/p>\n
\"There is not much the United States can do to change China's
\ncourse in fundamental ways. What else can it do? To isolate China
\nis not the best approach.\"<\/p>\n
Analysts noted that the evolution of Sino-U.S. relations has
\nbeen greatly affected by the collapse of Soviet power.<\/p>\n
Washington can no longer view China as a \"card\" to be played
\nagainst Moscow as it did at the height of the Cold War, but must
\naccept that the world's most populous country is becoming a
\ngeopolitical giant in its own right, with surging economic clout
\nand steadily expanding military might.<\/p>\n
Washington would be making a mistake, they said, if it resumed
\na post-Tiananmen policy of isolating Beijing, which might force
\nChina to fill the role of global antagonist that was vacated by
\nthe Soviet Union.<\/p>\n
They say such realpolitik underlies Washington's decision,
\nreported by the Los Angeles Times, to send a navy ship to make
\nthe first U.S. port call in China since the Seventh Fleet called
\nat Shanghai just before the 1989 crackdown.<\/p>",
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