Bush Defends China Talks : Democrats Hit Move as Kowtowing

President Bush today defended his decision to send two top aides to Beijing over the weekend and said he will “keep looking for ways to find common ground” with Chinese leaders despite continuing unhappiness with their crackdown last spring against pro-democracy forces.

Bush stressed that the trip by national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and a top State Department aide did not amount to normalization of relations. Those who suggest otherwise “simply do not know what they are talking about,” he said.

Democrats were criticizing Bush even as he spoke. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell of Maine said the mission by Scowcroft and Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger was “embarrassing kowtowing” to a brutal regime.

But Bush said he took the action because “I do not want to isolate the Chinese people.”

The President said the United States maintains contacts with several countries that have “egregious records on human rights.” As for the crackdown in Beijing last June, Bush said, “The Chinese know they have to address themselves to the problems that were inherent in this episode.”

Sanctions imposed by Bush after the crackdown remain in effect.

The President made his comments to a group of editorial writers gathered in an auditorium across the street from the White House.

Bush responded with an emphatic “No” when asked if he worried that the Scowcroft-Eagleburger trip would signal the Soviets that he would tolerate a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

“I have no concern about that at all as long as we are properly positioned in favor of human rights . . . and as long as the Soviet Union knew that we are not sending a signal of quote total normalization unquote. I will be careful that we do not send that signal,” he said.

At the same time, Bush said he is “very pleased today in the wake of General Scowcroft’s visit to notice that the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that they would not sell missiles to any Mideast countries.” He added that Scowcroft had raised the issue in his weekend talks with Chinese leaders, and the Chinese made their announcement before the national security adviser and Eagleburger returned to Washington.

Earlier, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater also defended the Administration’s China policy.

“This trip was not intended to develop normal relations with China in any immediate sense,” Fitzwater said. “It’s going to happen over a longer period of time, we hope.”

On another subject, Bush said he still plans to attend a drug summit scheduled for next year in Cartegena, Colombia, despite concerns that the visit would pose a security risk.

“I don’t want to send the signal that nobody should go to Colombia,” Bush said, praising the government’s efforts to bring the drug traffickers to justice.

He added, however that he will reassess the situation prior to the trip. “I will not do anything imprudent,” he said. “Nobody has ever accused me of being too daring.”