Bush Praises U.S.-China Ties, Lauds Reforms

President Bush began meetings with China’s top leaders today, after saluting the growth in the U.S.-Chinese relationship and expressing support for Beijing’s evolving ties with the Soviet Union, while weaving through the visit an undercurrent of support for human rights.

Bush, who headed the U.S. Liaison Office here in 1974-75, in the period before a full embassy was established, arrived aboard Air Force One on a hazy, mild winter afternoon Saturday.

The President and his wife, Barbara, attended Sunday services, conducted in Chinese with an English interpreter, at the crowded old Chong Wen Men Christian Church, where the choir and congregation sang, “In Christ There Is No East or West.”

Bush told the congregation that he used to visit the church by bicycle when he was stationed here and that the Bushes’ daughter, Dorothy, was baptized at the church.

Confers With Premier

After the service, the President met with Premier Li Peng in the Great Hall of the People. Later, he met with China’s aging and increasingly frail--but still pre-eminent leader--Deng Xiaoping.

At a banquet Saturday night, Bush saluted the reforms that have become the driving force in the modernization of China over the past decade. Bush said the changes in Chinese society “are bearing fruit right now, for this generation.”

Toasting his hosts, Bush--the fourth American chief executive to visit here in 17 years--offered a clear message of support for the course charted by Deng away from the rigid economic and social controls of the Mao Tse-tung era. He told his hosts:

“Today, the people of China have more opportunities to express themselves and to make important decisions in their personal and professional lives. Your new and farsighted economic program is already improving the lives of the people, as it will for generations to come.”

Recognizing the re-emerging Sino-Soviet relationship, Bush said, “The prospect of improved relations between China and the Soviet Union inspires hope for new progress in the search for self-determination and peace for the Cambodian people and stability for Korea.”

Bush also planned to meet today with Cambodian resistance leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk to discuss the effort to gain the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Cambodia. Vietnam is an ally of the Soviet Union.

The treatment of Bush’s visit by ordinary Chinese citizens marked how far the Washington-Beijing relationship has come since then-President Richard M. Nixon’s historic visit 17 years ago.

As Bush headed into town, clusters of Chinese gathered at intersections, not out of curiousity or as a show of welcome but simply to allow the motorcade to pass--just an interruption in the daily routine of this teeming capital.

And the President, in a rare departure from the standard practice of using a U.S. armored limousine for his transportation, whether in Washington or Moscow, rode into town in a black Mercedes-Benz limousine provided by his hosts--a gesture that a White House aide said was intended to demonstrate the President’s trust in the Chinese.

Stops at Square

On his way from the Beijing airport to the Diaoyutai State Guest House, Bush stopped at the 100-acre Tian An Men (Gate of Heavenly Peace) Square. With the orange sun setting in the haze over a corner of the Great Hall of the People and a large portrait of Mao forming a backdrop, the President shook hands with about a dozen bicyclists. In addition, he greeted several others in the crowd--apparently acquaintances from his China days who were there to meet him.

Bush, who prides himself on remembering those he has met during his more than two decades in politics, greeted more than one of those in the group with, “I know this guy. Good to see you all again.”

The Bushes were greeted by Premier Li at the state guest house, and the two leaders exchanged gifts--Li giving the Bushes two “Flying Pigeon” bicycles like the ones they used to ride here.

Bush presented Li, in turn, with a pair of black leather Texas boots, one with an American flag on it and the other with a Chinese flag.

At his meeting this morning with Deng, Bush received an effusive welcome. “A hearty welcome,” Deng said in Chinese, through an interpreter. “Thank you very much for coming to visit China shortly after you took office as President of the United States. We two have been good friends.”

Bush replied, “I’m delighted to see you looking so well.”

The meeting with Deng followed the approximately two-hour session Bush held in the morning with Li.

Bush and Li “had what we thought was a remarkable and unprecedented dialogue, covering issues ranging from Kampuchea (Cambodia), South Korea, North Korea, Middle East, trade, Afghanistan, Taiwan and nuclear proliferation,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said. “It was an engaged conversation. We got right down to business.”

Fond Memories

Leading up to the China visit, Bush mentioned frequently that he has fond memories of his experience in Beijing--an approach that is much appreciated by the Chinese leaders, who made clear their preference for Bush during the 1988 presidential campaign.

Indeed, the Chinese view him as an “old friend” and expect that, as such, Bush will further strengthen U.S.-China ties.

“For a decade and more, valuable friendship has been forged between you and Chinese leaders, Chairman Deng Xiaoping in particular, which is widely acclaimed by our two peoples,” Chinese President Yang Shangkun said in his banquet toast.

The President’s personal interest in China, and in making sure that all goes smoothly before the visit ends Monday morning, was reflected in instructions to White House staff members. They were told not to press the Chinese as forcefully as they might press presidential hosts in other nations about control of the visit’s agenda and the treatment of accompanying staff and reporters.

Similarly, according to U.S. officials, the Chinese want Bush to depart with a favorable impression of the country’s recent progress. At the same time, they hope to get to know some of the new President’s senior advisers, for whom “they don’t have a good feel,” one official said.

On such sensitive issues as the future of Taiwan, which China regards as a breakaway province, “they’re trying to calculate how to play the President,” he said.

Before coming to Beijing, Bush said at a news conference in Tokyo that the U.S.-Chinese relationship has moved beyond the era in which China was seen merely as a “card” for the United States to play in its efforts to stymie the Soviet Union.

“The China-U.S. relationship stands on its own in terms of cultural exchange and trade and on common strategic interests and on the way we view most of the world--not all of it, because we have some big differences with them on some areas,” Bush said.

“What I want to do is to strengthen that and to build on those common perceptions and to make them understand that we will never take for granted this relationship and that we will never do anything in dealing with the Soviets that would (be) to the detriment of our Asian friends,” the President said.

Gorbachev to Visit

The triangular Beijing-Moscow-Washington relationship, in a state of flux for several years, has grown even more fluid in recent weeks with the announcement that Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev will visit Beijing in mid-May for the first Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years. Bush said he sees nothing “detrimental” to the United States in that visit.

The President praised the tentative acceptance of freer human rights standards in China, saying that “I wouldn’t have thought (such steps) possible” when he served here 15 years ago.

As a symbol of his support for human rights, Bush has invited astrophysicist Fang Lizhi, China’s most prominent dissident, to a banquet he will give this evening for the Chinese leadership.

Times Beijing Bureau Chief David Holley contributed to this story.