China calling shots on Clinton's itinerary

By Edward Neilan

TOKYO (JP): Choreography and orchestration of U.S. President Bill Clinton's upcoming trip to China and Hong Kong this month has exceeded the hopes of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.

Indeed, their success reminds me of the slogan printed on the little slip of paper inside a fortune cookie I was served at a San Francisco Chinatown restaurant last summer: "There can be no harm in asking."

The Chinese have asked for -- and received approval for -- these points on the President Clinton June itinerary:

* Overfly No. 1 Asian-ally Japan to and from Beijing, citing that President Jiang Zemin made no extra stops during his visit last year; it would be a loss of face to Jiang if Clinton visited Japan enroute or on the way back (The White House has reacted to mounting criticism of this snub by inviting Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to Washington in July).

* Visit Tiananmen Square, to indicate U.S. acceptance that the book is closed on the June 4, 1989 bloodbath crackdown on pro- democracy students which I witnessed there. No amount of propaganda or whitewash enacted by any president will dilute that from my memory;

* Visit Hong Kong around the July 1 first-year anniversary of the handover from Britain to China where Clinton will give his seal of approval that Hong Kong is free (even the Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation claim so in their annual Report on Economic Freedom), that the peg of the Hong Kong dollar to the U.S. dollar and unchanged rate of the Chinese renminbi currency are providing stability and that generally ("Are you listening, Taiwan?") the "one country, two systems "formula is highly workable.

Behind the scenes, however, Hong Kong is having some problems with its own economy and there is subtle erosion of its free press.

A blip in the Hong Kong visit is that U.S. officials have told Martin Lee, leader of opposition forces in Hong Kong that won 60 percent of the popular vote in an election last week, that Clinton has no plans to meet with him privately during his stopover.

State Department officials suggested instead that Clinton meet with Lee along with leaders of other political parties in Hong Kong, including several pro-Beijing parties, which won some seats in the voting.

Lee's office opposes the plan because it implies that Lee is on equal footing with the pro-Beijing groups, some of which did not participate in the directly-elected segment of the ballot.

A State Department officials told Lee on May 15, according to the Washington Post's John Pomfret quoting sources close to Lee (that's journalese for Lee himself), that Clinton would not meet with him alone or with other democratic activists because he is worried about offending China.

Talk about self-censorship. What is the U.S. promoting, democracy or communism?

Clinton met alone with Lee in April 1997 for half an hour at the White House.

"It is very different to see someone in the U.S. as opposed to in their own country," the aide to Lee quoted a State Department official as saying.

The source added that on May 11, U.S. Consul General in Hong Kong Richard Boucher proposed that Clinton meet Lee in a group.

But Lee received 143,843 votes and he pointed out that Hong Kong's appointed leader Tung Chee-hwa has never stood for a genuine election.

I can understand why Clinton might shy away from an individual meeting with Lee, on public relations grounds. The feisty activist takes no prisoners in one-on-one meetings and would be likely to give Clinton an earful. I was scolded by Lee once for being 20 minutes late--actually I was 10 minutes early--for a meeting whose start time was botched by respective secretaries. Lee said he was a "busy man" and I believe it.

Criticism of arrangements of Clinton's visit come against a backdrop of allegations that the U.S. supplied sensitive missile technology and that political funds were funneled through the daughter of a high ranking Chinese military official. Some members of Congress have demanded that the trip be canceled.

The president has mixed those demands and on May 27 it was reported that Clinton had used a newly established hotline to inform President Jiang that he was coming to China despite the congressional criticism. It was the first use of the hotline on the U.S. side.

Washington has signaled that there will be "no change" in its Taiwan policy but Clinton is likely to give some verbal stroking to China on the issue although nothing new in writing, despite Beijing's hopes.

The only other thing the State Department didn't go along with---to that establishment's everlasting credit---was the devious Chinese request that Clinton visit the city of Nanking, scene of "The Rape of Nanking" by Japanese troops in December of 1937. A book by that title written by Iris Chang has been the center of controversy and on the bestseller lists in the U.S in recent weeks.

Beijing pointed out that President Jiang stopped at Pearl Harbor (at China's request) en route to the U.S. last year to underscore who the U.S. enemy in Asia really is. A Nanking visit would have played in the U.S. as China being the true friend of the U.S against Japan. The State Department was not amused and declined.

China was hoping to gain some hardball advantage going into the September visit of President Jiang to Tokyo.

On May 28 the American Embassy in Japan issued a statement clarifying words attributed to Ambassador Thomas Foley by Jiji Press. The Japanese press had headlined. "U.S. to Switch to Alliance with China."

What Foley had said was "but as much as our individual relations are improving with China, no one should have any doubt that the 21st century, as (well as) the latter part of this century, will be marked by a strong, fundamental U.S.-Japan partnership and alliance in the Asia-Pacific region.

It has maintained peace and security and encouraged prosperity for 45 years and I believe that it will continue to expand in the 21st century, and remain a great bulwark for prosperity and security in the next century."

After weeks of treatment from the U.S. bordering on rudeness from Clinton on down, the words were a welcome reassurance to Tokyo government and business leaders as well as to the salaryman hoisting a beer in a Ginza pub after work.

The writer is a veteran analyst of Northeast Asian affairs and a Media Fellow at Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

Window: Behind the scenes, however, Hong Kong is having some problems with its own economy and there is subtle erosion of its free press.