Bush Assailed by Democrats on China Initiative

Congressional Democrats castigated President Bush on Monday for dispatching his national security adviser to China, but Bush responded that the United States maintains contacts with other nations “that have egregious records on human rights.”

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.), taken aback by a mission that was announced only after it was under way, charged that Bush “now kowtows to that government” that six months ago massacred pro-democracy demonstrators around Beijing’s central Tian An Men Square.

Republicans tried to keep a low profile. “Republicans are grieving. . . . This whole thing smells,” one GOP foreign policy aide said.

Among Republicans who spoke up publicly, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a statement: “This trip sends the wrong message at the wrong time. What must those students and citizens who put their life on the line in Tian An Men Square think when they see Scowcroft toasting (Foreign) Minister Qian Qichen?”

Brent Scowcroft, Bush’s national security adviser, said in his toast Saturday that his visit was to “seek new areas of agreement” with China. He was accompanied by Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger.

Chinese students in the United States expressed disappointment over the Scowcroft mission. Wuer Kaixi, a leader of the demonstrations in Beijing who is now a student at Harvard, said in a telephone interview that the Bush Administration apparently has chosen business interests over human rights.

“The American government doesn’t look like a government which speaks for its people,” Wuer said. “Maybe they are more concerned with economics than human rights, democracy and freedom.”

Aides to Bush said the visit by Scowcroft and Eagleburger, who returned to Washington on Monday, did not represent a diplomatic “exchange” but rather a “contact.”

After the June massacre, Bush cut off high-level U.S.-Chinese exchanges and halted U.S. arms sales to the Chinese military. But the White House acknowledged Monday that Bush had decided in September to allow Chinese engineers to resume work with a U.S. team installing high-tech equipment on F-8 jet fighters to be sold to Beijing.

“This was the only way to avoid turning a suspension (of military sales) into a termination,” a White House statement said, adding that no deliveries have taken place.

Bush himself, speaking to several newspaper editorial page editors, said: “China is a billion-plus people. They have a strategic position in the world that remains important to us. And I’d like to think that they will redress some of the grievances that continue to exist. . . . The Chinese know that they still have to address themselves to the problems that were inherent in this episode.”

As a tangible result of the mission to Beijing, Bush pointed to a Chinese Foreign Ministry announcement Monday that China would not sell M-9 missiles in the Middle East, including Syria. China has long denied reports that it sold Silkworm anti-ship missiles to Iran.

“The fact that it was raised (by Scowcroft) and then responded to with this rapidity is a good sign,” Bush said.

But Mitchell said a similar pledge was made two years ago to then-Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci. “If the only reward is restatement of a two-year-old promise, it was hardly worth the effort,” the senator said.

Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, added: “If this was promised a second time . . . what happened to the first promise?”

Other Democrats vowed to take action next year to show their displeasure by overriding the President’s rejection of a bill to grant Chinese students in this country a four-year extension of the requirement that they return to their homeland.

They also said they would again pass legislation, also vetoed by Bush, that would impose additional sanctions on the Chinese regime for using troops and tanks to crush the pro-democracy movement.

“It was a sad day for America,” said Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Asian and Pacific affairs subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Bush said he recognized the “difficulty” of the U.S.-Chinese relationship, “but I don’t want to make it any worse.”

He added: “I would say to those who are out there churning around, saying that we have normalized relations with China, that they simply do not know what they are talking about.”

Times staff writer Don Shannon also contributed to this report.