Feinstein Says Chinese Leader Deserves Respect

As U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein sees it, Chinese President Jiang Zemin does not get the respect he deserves.

“I think people in the Western world have dismissed him without understanding his full potential as a leader,” the Democratic senator from California said in an interview here Wednesday. “I remember once debating with very prominent China scholars about Jiang Zemin, and not one of them believed he would be where he is today.”

“I think a lot of these scholars just talk to each other to get their ideas,” interjected her husband, San Francisco investment banker Richard C. Blum, who accompanied Feinstein to China and who has business interests here. “But unless you really spend time with the man, you can’t understand that he is a very bright man.”

Since her appointment to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year, Feinstein has made U.S.-China relations a priority, and has emerged--along with fellow Democrat Sen. J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana--as one of the main congressional advocates of a more “positive relationship” with the world’s most populous country.

“Here’s the largest country in the world, but the president [Jiang] has never been to Washington for a state visit,” Feinstein said. “. . . What the American people have to begin to understand is the importance of this relationship. It is important for peace. It is important for security. It is important for economic well-being.”

Feinstein, who has been visiting China since 1979, said she hopes to continue making two trips a year here during the remaining five years of her term.

Drawing on a decade-long friendship that dates to when she was mayor of San Francisco and Jiang was mayor of sister city Shanghai, Feinstein is one of the main believers in the Chinese president--who also holds the titles of general secretary of the Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission--as a capable, Western-oriented replacement for ailing senior leader Deng Xiaoping.

“I first met Jiang Zemin in Shanghai in 1985, and we saw each other every year after that. He’s been a guest at our home in San Francisco. We’ve worked to build this relationship.”

Meanwhile, she is an outspoken critic of Taiwanese lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill.

All this has made Feinstein a welcome and influential guest at the Zhongnanhai compound where top Chinese leaders reside. On Monday night, Jiang hosted Feinstein, accompanied by Sens. John Glenn (D-Ohio) and Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), at dinner at the former Zhongnanhai residence of the late Mao Tse-tung.

Feinstein said her conversations with Jiang were wide-ranging, touching on nuclear nonproliferation, intellectual property issues, Tibet and the recent sentencing by a Chinese court of dissident writer Wei Jingsheng to 14 years in prison on charges of attempting to overthrow the government.

Feinstein told the Chinese leaders this week that six U.S. record companies are prepared to enter joint ventures to convert Chinese factories producing pirated compact discs to legal production, according to a report issued by her in Washington. The report did not name the record companies, nor did it indicate Beijing’s response to the proposal, the Reuters news agency said.