Baker, Chinese Official Discuss Preserving Ties

Secretary of State James A. Baker III met with China’s foreign minister for 90 minutes Monday in what he described as an attempt to preserve Sino-American cooperation in the wake of the suppression of the pro-democracy movement.

The meeting was the first high-level contact between U.S. and Chinese officials since President Bush banned government-to-government exchanges as part of the sanctions he imposed after the Tian An Men Square massacre in June.

Baker said his meeting with Foreign Minister Qian Qichen did not violate the President’s ban because both men were in Paris for the opening of a 20-nation Cambodian peace conference. The prohibition was on visits by officials of one country to the other, he added.

Went on With Meeting

Baker went ahead with the Qian meeting and with a subsequent strategy session on Cambodia despite reports of the murder of Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins by Islamic extremists in Lebanon. U.S. officials said Baker requested the session with Qian.

Before leaving Paris, Baker spoke with Bush by telephone, presumably about the Higgins case and other matters.

In a brief statement to reporters after the meeting, Baker said he and Qian talked about China’s suppression of the pro-democracy movement but “we discussed also the fact that over the course of the past 10 or 12 years, both countries have engaged in expanded efforts to build up a relationship that, frankly, we should seek to preserve if we can.”

The senior State Department official later told reporters aboard Baker’s aircraft on the way back to Washington that the secretary of state had told Qian that the American public does not “understand” the repression of the democracy movement.

The official said Baker warned China that further bloodshed would “represent a problem to the preservation of the relationship” between the two countries.

He left little doubt that Qian reacted angrily to the U.S. criticism.

“There is clearly a difference of approach in the way that they view the events that took place,” the official said. “We simply had a frank and candid discussion (diplomatic language for a controversy) of that aspect of the relationship.

“While the Administration, the President, wants to preserve this relationship if possible, we can’t do it alone--we’re going to need some help,” the official said. “We’re going to need some help from them. They need to understand the way the American people relate to the events that happened in China.”

The official added that the U.S. government believes the Sino-American relationship “has not just economic, but political and strategic meaning for both our countries.”

The official said Baker warned the Chinese against “turning inward” as a result of the worldwide criticism of the bloody massacre in Tian An Men Square.

Baker said he and Qian also spent part of their meeting discussing the Cambodian peace talks that brought them both to France.

Agreement on Cambodia

The senior official said later that the United States and China are in general agreement on most aspects of the Cambodia question despite a continuing--and basic--dispute over the role of the Khmer Rouge.

As much as possible, Washington wants to isolate the Khmer Rouge, which was responsible for the murder of more than 1 million Cambodians when it held power in in the late 1970s. In contrast, China is the main arms supplier to the Khmer Rouge, which remains the strongest military faction of any of the Cambodian groups.

However, the official said Qian agreed that the Khmer Rouge should not be allowed to resume a dominant role in any future Cambodian government.