Don't isolate China over human rights, says former U.S. president

SINGAPORE (AFP): Former U.S. president George Bush Friday said that America should stop threatening China with a withdrawal of trading privileges as a way of forcing Beijing to improve its human-rights record.

Because of problems on the Korean peninsula and other issues, Washington needs Chinese cooperation, Bush said, addressing businessmen and top government officials here.

"We don't get that by slapping them in the face," he said. Bush, who said he fought off attempts in the U.S. congress to deny China most-favored-nation trade (MFN) status after the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, said it was time to "delink" trade from the issue of human rights.

"We should separate our conventions on human rights (from trade) ... and recognize that economic reform is going to lead inevitably to more individual liberties and more human rights," he said, responding to a question.

Bush said that there was far more respect for human rights in China now than in 1972, when U.S. president Richard Nixon signed the Shanghai Communique, reopening ties with communist China.

"The way to keep the progress in China going is to stay involved, engage the leadership there and not postulate and insult," he said to applause from the more than 800 guests at a lunch hosted by Citibank.

Analysts said Bush's remarks would win ready endorsement in many Asian countries where businessmen fear that any move to deny China MFN status would hurt trade in the Asia-Pacific and do more harm than good.

In prepared remarks, Bush said earlier that the United States could not expect to influence countries by insulting them.

"Grandstanding may attract attention -- but it won't build a better world or Pacific region," Bush said.

Bush said he believed that the United States should remain engaged globally, ignore calls by advocates for a lower international profile and promote free markets.

To put America first, the United States must "put protectionism and isolationism last," he said, adding that Washington should continue security ties with Japan and South Korea and avoid trade wars.

"It's free markets and free people that bring about unparalled growth and prosperity," Bush said.