U.S. Still Faults China on Rights, Christopher Says : Commerce: The secretary welcomes consideration of prison inspections. But he says that won’t be enough.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher served notice Monday that China’s move to begin allowing the Red Cross into its prisons will not be enough to win renewal of its most-favored-nation trading privileges when they expire next year.

After years when its vast penal system was largely closed to the outside world, Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen announced last week that China will give “positive consideration” to allowing the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit dissidents inside its jails. It is estimated that more than 3,000 prisoners are held in China for what are called “counterrevolutionary” crimes stemming from their political activities.

The move seemed to be aimed at satisfying President Clinton’s requirement last May that China show “overall significant progress” in its human rights policies this year if it hopes to continue exporting goods to this country under the same low duties enjoyed by most other nations. But Christopher said Monday that China needs to do more if it wants to keep the trade benefits, which expire next July.

“Overall significant progress will not be found in a single step such as permitting the Red Cross to inspect the prisons,” Christopher said at a news briefing. “Nevertheless, that is a step that we value, and we look for more like it.”

In recent days, Chinese officials have started the process of meeting with the Red Cross to arrange the prison visits. A senior Administration official asserted Monday night that these actions are “a small step in the right direction.”

But he said that China needs to take other steps, such as releasing prisoners held since the 1989 pro-democracy protests, treating dissidents better, permitting international broadcasting into China and easing its policies in Tibet.

Administration officials have conceded privately that China may not be taking U.S. threats seriously.

U.S. companies that invest or do business in China have become an increasingly strong constituency in favor of maintaining China’s trade benefits--particularly because China has threatened to retaliate against U.S. companies if the privileges are revoked.

The Clinton Administration is now preparing for the highest-level meeting between the United States and China since the crackdown at Tian An Men Square in 1989. Clinton will meet with Chinese President Jiang Zemin on Friday in Seattle, where both men will be attending a summit-level meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

In September, in a significant shift in its policy toward China, the Administration opened the way for a series of high-level visits by U.S. officials to Beijing. One of these visits, by Assistant Defense Secretary Chas Freeman, broke a four-year freeze on exchanges between the Pentagon and the People’s Liberation Army.

Clinton told a group of columnists Monday night that “this is a very important relationship (between the United States and China).”