Jiang fails to ease fears of Chinese influence

Jiang fails to ease fears of Chinese influence

By Gilles Campion

BEIJING (AFP): President Jiang Zemin returned home Tuesday
after a four-country tour and a major summit that failed to
remove fears about Chinese influence in Southeast Asia.

Jiang rounded off the tour in Vietnam, after visiting
Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, where he also attended a
summit of the 18-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
forum.

On returning he sent a warm message of thanks to Vietnam's for
the "grand and friendly reception," Xinhua news agency reported.

But at each stop on the tour, Jiang rammed home a more
important message: China has no plans for greatness other than to
become an economic power.

Jiang, the Chinese communist party's general secretary, also
tried to sidestep the thorny question of rival claims over the
Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The tactic succeeded in
Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, but not in Hanoi, whose navy was routed
by Chinese warships in a 1988 flareup.

A western diplomat commented that Jiang's tour "reaffirmed the
chief principles governing relations between China and the other
states (in the region): the right to follow one's own line, no
interference in international affairs, especially in human
rights, and finally, insistence on Beijing's sovereignty over
Taiwan).

"At the same time, China also declared its willingness to join
all conferences and forums on market economics, and take part in
building a huge free-trade zone on the Pacific rim," he said.

China had initially joined with Malaysia on opposing a date
for APEC free trade. But in the end it left Malaysian Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad to twist in the wind as the sole
holdout at the summit.

Under the Bogor Declaration of Nov. 15, industrialized members
of APEC will scrap barriers on trade and investment by 2010, and
the others a decade later.

China's evident hope was that by signing up to the date, they
would win US support for its bid to re-enter the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) by the end of the year.

"By committing themselves to a scheme which is scheduled to
take effect in a quarter of a century, the Chinese have not made
much of a concession," an expert on Chinese affairs said. "And
they can also use it as a lever on the Americans, to demand a
quid pro quo."

Jiang, in his summit with US President Bill Clinton, also
stonewalled American concerns on human rights. He set five
"principles" for recasting Sino-American relations, chief of
which was non-interference in each other's affairs.

On the question of bilateral relations with China's Southeast
Asian neighbors, Jiang hailed the growth in trade and investment
with Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore and voiced support for
Mahathir's plan for an East Asia Economic Caucus, a forum that
would exclude the United States.

In Jakarta, in a gesture that is sure to be appreciated by
President Suharto, Jiang pledged that China had no plans to
develop a third column among ethnic Chinese in Indonesia: "China
will never use people of Chinese origin living in Indonesia to
seek political or economic gain in that country."

However, his trip to Vietnam was somewhat marred by the
question of the Spratlys and the Paracel Islands, a South China
Sea archipelago occupied by China.

Vietnamese leaders publicly raised the question of the future
of the two areas, forcing Jiang to admit that "there exist
problems between China and Vietnam."

"We should try not to let these problems, which cannot be
settled immediately, stand in the way of development between our
countries," he said.