Clinton, Jiang aim at summit agreements

Clinton, Jiang aim at summit agreements

WASHINGTON (Reuters): Amid the fanfare of the first U.S.-China
summit since the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, President Bill Clinton
and Chinese President Jiang Zemin sought agreement on economic
and security issues yesterday.

Clinton and Jiang, who held informal talks in the White House
residence Tuesday night, were to lay out their agendas in
speeches at a welcoming ceremony steeped in military pomp on the
south lawn of the executive mansion.

After the ceremony, which included a 21-gun salute, the two
planned a lengthy private meeting covering a list of topics that
included trade, nuclear cooperation, and joint efforts to protect
the environment.

Their aim was to build a foundation for a new relationship
between the United States and the world's most populous nation
after years of friction stemming from the Chinese army attack on
prodemocracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

U.S. officials said they expected an agreement that would
clear the way for U.S. nuclear energy exports to China, and hoped
for a Chinese commitment to cooperate in a global campaign to
reduce "greenhouse" gas emissions.

But Clinton and Jiang were competing for public attention with
the gyrations of global financial markets, which soared yesterday
in response to Tuesday's dramatic U.S. rebound from a nosedive
that began with market turmoil in Hong Kong.

Also dampening any summit euphoria was a mass gathering of
protesters in a park across the street from the White House for a
rally against China's policies on human rights, Tibet and Taiwan.

"I think there should be cooperation, but I think we should be
clear. That's the problem here. We've been sending such mixed
messages to the Chinese since the very first days of the Clinton
administration," actor Richard Gere, a protest organizer, said on
the ABC's "Good Morning America" program.

Exiled Chinese dissidents, U.S. labor and political leaders
and an array of activists for various causes were to address the
rally.

In what the White House termed "very direct, personal and
substantive" warmup talks on the eve of the summit, Clinton and
Jiang discussed the very subjects that sparked summit protests in
the United States, a Clinton spokesman said.

They reached agreement at their preliminary meeting on
installing a telephone hot line between Washington and Beijing.

The telephone connection would be styled after the one that
linked Washington and Moscow in the days of the Cold War in a bid
to decrease tensions.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Shen Guofang scoffed at
protests that have dogged Jiang since his arrival in Honolulu
Sunday for a nine-day visit to the United States, saying the
protesters were ignorant.

"I think most of these people do not understand China's
situation very well," he said.

James Lilley, U.S. ambassador to China in the George Bush
administration, said Washington's policy of "constructive
engagement" which Clinton adopted from Bush was working.

Editorial -- Page 4

Tibet -- Page 6

Photo -- Page 16