DIPLOMACY WATCH : Bilateral Ballet

The chief result of this week’s brief encounter between President Clinton and China’s President Jiang Zemin in New York seems to be they were able to avoid adding to the strains that already weigh so heavily on relations between their countries. These days that probably counts as progress.

The couple of hours of conversation may have cleared the way--at least U.S. officials hope it did--for renewed discussion on such key issues as bilateral trade and China’s apparent cheating on an agreement to control exports of missiles and missile parts. Beyond that, it appears the meeting didn’t do much more than observe the courtesies. It would have been unthinkable for Clinton not to meet Jiang, who was in New York for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. That they got together in a ballet rehearsal hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts seems appropriate, given the stylized political choreography of their mini-summit.

China rejected a U.S. proposal to resume the dialogue on human rights that Beijing suspended earlier this year, and the United States did not grant a promise--sought by Jiang--to bar visits by officials from Taiwan, which China regards as a rebellious province. One test of where the relationship goes from here will be whether Washington and Beijing choose to deal with these and other contentious issues more quietly. The importance of the U.S.-China relationship is clear to all. Much less clear is whether the suspicions and clashes of interests that have come to define it can be alleviated any time soon.