Human Rights Still a Central Element, U.S. Officials Say

The Clinton Administration said Friday that promoting human rights will remain a central element in U.S. policy toward China even though the issue is no longer linked with trade.

“We have focused a brighter spotlight on human rights practices in China. That scrutiny will continue, and our human rights dialogue with China will intensify,” Secretary of State Warren Christopher said.

His remarks were part of an effort by the Administration to rebut suggestions by opposition politicians and human rights groups that by renewing China’s most-favored-nation trading status unconditionally, President Clinton caved in to Beijing.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, denied that Clinton’s shift was a sign of weakness.

“On the contrary, I think this is a very important step in showing American resolve,” she said.

She said Clinton’s is a policy that “shows strength, that shows the ability to know what is important for the United States and to know the importance of how to pursue a policy of human rights as well as a policy of engagement with China.”

Christopher, in a speech to the Asia Society in New York made available in Washington, said the Administration will work with U.S. business leaders to develop principles to improve working conditions and will make it a practice to meet with a wide range of Chinese citizens.

He said Beijing had told the United States that greater progress on human rights could be made even without the MFN linkage and “now we will give them a chance.” Revoking MFN, he said, would have led to a “downward spiral in U.S.-China relations”.

Christopher put the China decision in the context of what he called a comprehensive U.S. strategy of engagement and leadership in the Asia-Pacific region.

This also includes new trade negotiations with Japan, efforts to solve nuclear problems with North Korea and U.S.-Vietnamese agreement on establishing liaison offices in each other’s capitals.

The State Department released a summary of Christopher’s report and recommendations that conceded that China had not made the “overall, significant progress” on five areas of human rights that had been required for renewal of MFN in an executive order signed by Clinton last year.

The report said China was complying with an agreement barring exports to the United states of goods made by prison labor, although officials acknowledged that there was “some evidence” that such exports were continuing.

The report also said negotiations with the International Red Cross had not yielded any Chinese agreement to permit access to prisons, and Tibetans were continuing to be jailed for peaceful protests in support of political and religious independence.

Human rights groups have condemned Clinton’s decision, accusing the President of caving in to big business.

Deputy National Security Adviser Samuel Berger, speaking on ABC television’s “Good Morning America” program, defended the new policy of engagement.

Clinton had to decide whether to sever “a $40-billion relationship that has enormous importance to the security and economic” interests of the United States, Berger said, or “whether we pursue human rights better through a policy of contact, of engagement, in which we press the human rights agenda but not through threatening to sever the entire relationship.”