Mutual Ignorance Leads to Folly : The U.S. ambassador to China, former Sen. Jim Sasser, needs to educate Beijing and Congress about each other.

Two very different kinds of U.S. action could help ease what Asian officials call “the tension” over the Taiwan Strait. Boldly, President Clinton should travel here for a summit. And very quietly, the new American ambassador, Jim Sasser, should work behind the scenes in the capital of the world’s most populous nation to explain to the Chinese the mysterious ways of the U.S. Congress. The chances of the first happening are slim--it’s an election year and the White House would assess such a trip as too big a political risk. And while the second will probably start to happen soon, I just hope good ol’ boy Sasser is enough to do the trick: Except for a few aircraft carriers, U.S. diplomacy in China doesn’t have a whole lot else going for it right now.

Even though he can scarcely utter a dozen words in Mandarin and would be the last to call himself a China expert, Democrat Sasser knows Congress--as he should, after 18 years in the Senate representing Tennessee. If he can lead Beijing to a deeper understanding of how and why the American legislature can have its own (pro-Taiwan) China policy, so at odds with the White House’s, he could help pull Sino-U.S. relations away from where they appear to be heading: toward a new cold war that would be disastrous for Asia, for America and especially for China. The other half of the equation would be for Sasser to help his colleagues back in Congress take a more statesmanlike, longer-range view of China.

Last year, the potent Taiwan lobby, Taipei’s long arm in Washington, led Congress to induce Warren Christopher, the otherwise honorable secretary of state, to ignore a prior understanding with Beijing and grant a U.S. visa to Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui. Beijing was steamed. Today, a new pro-Taiwan resolution is working its way through Congress (which Clinton may veto). Now Beijing is really steamed--especially after its campaign of blustering and military big-footing over the Taiwan Strait totally, miserably, publicly flopped. Beijing now realizes that its policy will have to be a lot slicker than this unless it actually wants to invade Taiwan. Which I don’t think it does. Technically, Beijing is only reflecting current international law when it asserts its rights over Taiwan. For many years, the United States and the United Nations have agreed that there is only one China and that Beijing is its official government. China needs to continue to fight the diplomatic battle.

A Congressional interference in Sino-U.S. relations, while constitutionally permissible, is a bigger problem than many people realize. Understand one thing: China will not back down on the Taiwan-is-part-of-overall-China principle. “I believe that some congressmen have a very poor understanding of China,” a top foreign ministry official complained to me. “They should come and visit. Some of them are quite ignorant. The U.S. government should have a program for them to come here. They can come at any time. If they want to have a say on China, they should first develop an adequate understanding of China.” Purveyor of the communist line though he may be, the gentleman has a point. Indeed, Sasser echoed those thoughts. He told me he would like to find some way to bring over planeloads of congressional representatives to see the situation for themselves.

For its part, Taipei has been pushing the diplomatic-recognition envelope too hard. It should let up. On May 20, its first directly elected president will deliver an inaugural speech that the world will watch closely. Will 73-year-old President Lee play the statesman and hold out the olive branch to Beijing, or will he play a headstrong Confederate president and renew the well-funded fight for recognition as an independent state, only in the most theoretical sense part of an overall, historic China?

If “the tension” boils over, forget about not only regional peace but also the phenomenal Asian economic boon. Taiwan is now California’s fifth-largest (at least) export market. California also accounted for no less than 12% of U.S. exports to mainland China. Taiwan is booming; China’s GNP has been growing for years in the double digits.

To officials here, I refloated the suggestion that Clinton go to Beijing this year. The response was quite warm. Said a top official: “I think your past column proposing that Clinton come to China was a very good suggestion. We read it.” Another said: “It would be a brilliant move by Clinton, but I don’t think he’d do it in an election year.” I agree. It would require a gentlemen’s agreement from both Beijing and Taipei to behave themselves at least through November. But until its succession struggle is over, Beijing can’t guarantee that, and unless and until it starts to take a longer-term view of its independence ambitions, Taipei won’t. Indeed, the island and its Washington lobby would scream if Clinton went to Beijing without Christopher going to Taipei--a level of U.S. recognition that would be anathema to Beijing.

So that leaves it to good ol’ Jim Sasser to hold hands with Beijing through the U.S. election. I just hope that the Chinese listen to him--and that his former colleagues in Congress do the same.