Clinton, Chinese President Meet Before Summit

President Clinton met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin today for the second time in a year, with the two leaders showing that they are working closely together for peace in Korea but are still deeply divided over economic and trade disputes.

The two presidents talked for about an hour at a convention center in Jakarta, where both men have come to attend a summit meeting of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Eighteen nations from around the Pacific belong to the organization.

U.S. officials characterized the meeting as “businesslike and friendly.” The upbeat tone represented an extraordinary change from a year ago, when Clinton and Jiang met for the first time at the inaugural APEC summit in Seattle. At that time, the two countries were preoccupied with U.S. complaints about repression and human rights violations in China.

At the session, the two presidents seemed to be joining to press for new talks soon between North and South Korea. That would represent an important new step toward putting into effect the recently signed agreement under which North Korea is to stop developing nuclear weapons.

A year ago, Clinton--who during his 1992 presidential campaign had accused the George Bush Administration of “coddling dictators” in its policy toward Beijing--sat stony-faced as photographers shot the beginning of the meeting with Jiang. Afterward, looking equally grim, he said he had been “as frank and forthright as possible” about the differences between the two countries.

By contrast, the main dispute to emerge at today’s meeting was over China’s current and pressing drive to be admitted to the new World Trade Organization, which will set the rules for liberalized trade among the world’s leading economic powers. The outcome will determine the extent to which U.S. and other foreign companies can sell their products in China.

China wants to preserve some protection for its industries. It seeks to enter the world trade system with some special, more lenient conditions than apply to the United States, Japan and Western European nations, on grounds that it is still a “developing country.”

But Clinton told Jiang that in order to enter the new trade group, China would have to abide by what he called “the basic rules” that apply to “any other nation,” according to U.S. officials at the meeting.

Clinton Administration officials insist that they are still pressing human rights concerns with China. But Clinton shifted course on his China policy last May, when he abandoned the threat to remove China’s most-favored-nation trading privileges in the United States. Since then, U.S. officials have avoided further public threats against Beijing.

Administration officials stressed that Clinton raised human rights issues during his meeting with Jiang today, but they were not the main subject of conversation and were portrayed as merely one of many issues on the agenda.

Indeed, the Chinese president thanked Clinton for what he called the “progress” in the relationship between the two countries over the past year. The President also acknowledged that there has been progress, but he carefully added that more needs to be done on human rights in China, U.S. participants in the meeting said.

Administration officials have been particularly eager to demonstrate that they cooperate closely with China in their policy toward North Korea, because China is the only country with any leverage over the Pyongyang regime. Since 1991, Beijing has also had diplomatic ties with South Korea, and Chinese Premier Li Peng paid a recent visit to Seoul.

Secretary of Defense William J. Perry recently gave China credit for helping bring North Korea into the agreement it signed with the United States. In it, Pyongyang promised to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for billions of dollars in economic concessions from the United States and its allies.

At today’s meeting, Jiang said he hoped that North and South Korea would have good talks with one another. His remarks suggested that China is now cooperating with the Clinton Administration in pushing the two Koreas to open new high-level talks.

Arranging talks between North and South Korea is important, because South Korea has complained that the Clinton Administration should not leave Seoul behind as the United States begins to upgrade its relations with North Korea.

During today’s meeting, Jiang also complained to Clinton about U.S. policy toward Taiwan. In September, the Administration announced a modest upgrading of the U.S. policy on contacts with Taiwan, with which the United States has no diplomatic relations.

Clinton reaffirmed the 2-decade-old policy that the United States believes there is only one China and that Taiwan is not an independent country. While the President’s language was not new, it was welcome to China, which considers Taiwan to be a renegade province and hopes to regain control over it someday.

Another human rights issue remained in the foreground as Clinton arrived in Jakarta, where students from the disputed territory of East Timor kept up a vigil inside the U.S. Embassy compound.

The embassy standoff came amid reports of violent demonstrations 1,200 miles away in Dili, the capital of East Timor, where hundreds of protesters swirled through the streets, breaking car windows, setting small fires and throwing stones at police.

The protests proved a major embarrassment to the Indonesian government, which had hoped that the summit of Asian and Pacific leaders would showcase the country’s economic achievements. The talks will be held Tuesday in the mountain resort of Bogor, about 40 miles south of Jakarta.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, was unilaterally annexed by Indonesia in 1976 in a move that has never been recognized by the United Nations. East Timor is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, while Indonesia’s population of 180 million is predominantly Muslim.

A small independence movement has been fighting to force the Indonesian government to withdraw its troops from East Timor, but most of its members are now in Indonesian jails. The group recently began peace talks with the Indonesian government at the United Nations, but Indonesia gave no indication that it is prepared to relinquish control of the territory.

In Jakarta, 29 East Timorese students remained holed up in a walled parking lot at the U.S. Embassy complex. The students scaled a high wrought-iron fence Saturday as hundreds of riot police looked on.

A group spokesman said they were demanding to meet with Clinton or Christopher to present their demands for the release of guerrilla leader Jose (Xanana) Gusmao, who is serving a 20-year sentence.

“We want a chance to tell Christopher that we have been suffering for 19 years and we hope you can solve this problem,” said group leader Domingos Salmento Alvas.

The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that the demonstrators had been offered water and a chance to meet with U.S. Ambassador Robert Barry. “We have urged them to present their concerns in a constructive and timely manner through the President’s personal representative,” the statement said. “They have not accepted our offer at this time.”

Christopher told reporters Saturday that the United States plans to press Indonesian President Suharto about East Timor and other human rights issues during a one-day state visit by Clinton on Wednesday, after the summit talks are concluded.

And Clinton, during a one-day visit to the Philippines, said Sunday, “Human rights is too important (an issue), particularly now, to pass by.” Clinton told a news conference in Manila that he would “absolutely” be raising human rights issues in Jakarta even though the question is not part of the formal agenda for the summit.