Crackdown Would Hurt Ties, Bush Warns Chinese

President Bush, while taking pains not to intervene publicly in China’s political turmoil, privately warned a senior Chinese government official Tuesday that a violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations would damage improving U.S.-Chinese relations, an Administration official said.

Bush delivered the message--the bluntest Administration comment so far on the government-student confrontation--in an Oval Office meeting with Wan Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

“It was clear to him (Wan) that the use of violence would have a negative effect on our relations,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We would not be happy, and it would do nothing good for our relationship.”

Wan, who abruptly cut short his U.S. visit to return to Beijing to consult with top leaders of his government, is seen by U.S. officials as close to Deng Xiaoping, the paramount Chinese leader and target of much of the protest, but also sympathetic to the demonstrators. Thus, Administration officials were cautiously hopeful about his influence in resolving the stalemate.

His decision to hurry back to China, announced before he met with Bush, was seen by Administration officials, at least in part, as an effort by Wan to involve himself in the resolution of the conflict that has torn with increasing intensity at established order in China.

The President spent an hour with Wan and then escorted him to the White House residence to meet First Lady Barbara Bush. According to a White House statement, Bush told his visitor:

“We are strongly committed to democracy around the world. It is the underpinning of our being as a nation. I urge nonviolence and restraint in your present situation.”

The President also urged a halt to the jamming of Voice of America broadcasts, which Voice officials said occurred Monday, and asked that reporters working in China “be given open access,” the statement said.

At the same time, the statement added, Bush assured Wan that he “remains personally committed to expanding the normal and constructive relations the United States enjoys with China. . . . The United States hopes to see the continuing implementation of economic and political reforms.”

Two Administration officials, speaking anonymously, said that Bush and other U.S. officials who met with Wan over the last two days had made no overt threats. But they made clear that the use of violence to end the demonstrations--and any slowing of the reforms--would threaten the expansion of relations.

The Administration’s low-key approach, which has drawn criticism from those seeking outspoken support for the demonstrators, reflects the narrow line that it is trying to walk. While seeking to encourage the government to continue on its path of opening up Chinese society, Bush has sought to avoid publicly chastising the authorities in Beijing, lest they harden their attitudes toward the United States.

Wan’s trip, scheduled before the demonstrations began in Beijing five weeks ago, was intended to give U.S. officials a report on the just-completed visit of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to China. The topic of the demonstrations was added to the agenda.

The coincidence of the visit with the demonstrations offered the Administration an opportunity to make its plea for a peaceful resolution of the disputes directly to a Chinese official who has ties to Deng and who also has expressed sympathy for the students. Deng is believed to favor a harder line.

In the view of analysts of Chinese affairs, the demonstrating students had been hoping that Wan would use his official position to put pressure on the Chinese government. But with the emergence of opposition to the government within the military, his position was seen as less crucial.

At a White House news conference before the meeting between Bush and Wan, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said that Western principles of democracy motivate the Chinese demonstrators, even if their overt support has been for Gorbachev.

“They may have that name on their lips, but they have the policies of the West in mind,” Baker said. “It is the philosophy of the West that they are advancing, and it is the values of the West that they are seeking.”