First Lady Going to China Despite GOP Objections

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to China to attend the World Conference on Women early next month despite calls from Republican leaders for the United States to boycott the event, the White House said Friday.

The announcement came the day after China’s decision to release American human rights activist Harry Wu and to expel him from the country, where he had been imprisoned since June. Mrs. Clinton had delayed a decision on whether to go to the Beijing conference while Wu was jailed.

The First Lady will serve as honorary chair of the American delegation, and Administration officials said she plans to address the conference during her two-day stay in Beijing. Madeleine Albright, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, heads the U.S. delegation.

White House officials said Mrs. Clinton will participate only in the women’s conference and will have no official contact with the Chinese government while in Beijing.

“She does not plan any bilateral meetings [with Chinese officials], although she may perhaps meet with members of the Chinese delegation to the conference,” said White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry.

From the beginning, the question of whether the First Lady would attend the conference has been primarily one of political symbolism. And the decision to go to Beijing represents a gamble that the risks of appearing to be too conciliatory to China will be outweighed by the gains of underscoring the Administration’s differences with conservative groups in America on women’s and family issues.

Republican leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas and Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, have opposed any official U.S. participation at the Beijing women’s conference, not only by Mrs. Clinton but by any other American representatives.

“I would hope and urge that, in the wake of Harry Wu’s unjust conviction and subsequent release, President Clinton declines to send a delegation,” Dole said in a statement issued Thursday. “This misguided conference and its left-wing ideological agenda remains a genuine waste of the taxpayer’s money.”

Gramm said Friday: “The only proper American response to the release of Harry Wu is to say, ‘It’s about time,’ not, ‘Take my wife, please.’ ”

*

On the political right in America, activists and commentators have denounced the Beijing conference because they believe it will push a feminist agenda. James Dobson of Focus on the Family has attacked the session as “the most radical, atheistic and anti-family crusade in the history of the world.”

By contrast, in a statement released by the White House while President Clinton was vacationing in Yellowstone National Park, the Administration said that the Beijing meeting “presents a significant opportunity to chart further gains in the status of women.”

Citing the importance of protecting the rights of women, strengthening families and improving health care, the statement said, “The First Lady’s attendance reflects the profound commitment of the United States to ensure that the conference endorses all of these goals.”

Originally, Administration officials had sketched out an Asia trip for Mrs. Clinton that included stops in Mongolia, Thailand and Cambodia, as well as China.

But White House officials said Friday that she will travel only to Beijing, attending the women’s conference on Sept. 5 and 6.

Mrs. Clinton has made it clear for months that she would like to attend the conference. The diplomacy with China leading up to Friday’s announcement dates back to early August, when Secretary of State Warren Christopher met with Chinese Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Qian Qichen in Brunei. At that time, Administration officials said they hoped that Wu might be set free before the women’s conference.

After Christopher returned from Asia, he and Deputy National Security Adviser Samuel Berger met with Mrs. Clinton at the White House. What they said is unknown, but within a day, White House officials sent out word that Mrs. Clinton might not go to China after all. By the end of the week, Chinese authorities had scheduled Wu’s trial, opening the way for him to be convicted and then expelled from the country.

* WHAT PRICE WU’S FREEDOM?: China likely to seek U.S. concessions on Taiwan. A6