Top U.S. Envoy Tries to Repair Ties With China

After a stormy stretch in U.S.-China relations, U.S. National Security Advisor Anthony Lake met with top leaders here this week to put matters back on track.

Their talks echoed discussions that began 25 years ago today, after a planeload of U.S. officials had arrived on a secret mission to Beijing to open relations with China. On the agenda both times: a presidential visit and the gift of a pair of pandas.

The two visits encapsulate the cyclical nature of the U.S.-China relationship. In the past year, however, the usual ups and downs have turned into a roller coaster of confrontations over trade, Taiwan and human rights. At last year’s lowest point, both countries were barely speaking diplomatically: China withdrew its ambassador to the United States, and Washington did not replace its top diplomat who had just come home from Beijing.

So this week’s visit by Lake, the highest-level U.S. official to visit China since 1994, may signal a clearing horizon or a review of policies that have resulted in escalating clashes between the two countries.

“We saw ahead of us a series of problems we had to work through in ways that served our own interests,” Lake said today. “We have done that now and have an opportunity to deepen our strategic dialogue.”

Lake was given the red-carpet treatment during two days of meetings with top Chinese leaders, including President Jiang Zemin--all part of an effort on both sides to make the relationship “more stable and predictable.”

The talks were partly intended to pave the way for visits to China by President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said that after Lake’s visit, the two countries “ought to find ways to make routine high-level visits . . . including, conceivably, an exchange of state visits by President Clinton and President Jiang Zemin.”

Recent progress on several issues, including weapons proliferation and intellectual property rights, should help make such visits possible, McCurry said. Problems remain, he acknowledged, but “the overall climate of our bilateral relations has certainly improved.”

This week’s meetings also covered old topics, from regional security to sales to unfriendly nations of nuclear technology. The two countries noted their differences on issues that have strained their ties, especially human rights, U.S. access to Chinese markets and China’s policy toward Taiwan.

And they discussed how to help a pair of pandas make it past U.S. quarantine regulations in time to appear at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

“There was a better atmosphere, with less suspicion,” said one U.S. official. “But the worst thing we can do is say that we’re home free.”

Indeed, long-held beliefs that have brought the governments to the brink before could cause old problems to recur. In the U.S., Taiwan’s democratic development has won strong congressional support, which Beijing interprets as encouraging a rogue province’s moves toward independence.

U.S. politicians claim that China doesn’t keep its promises on trade, nuclear proliferation and human rights; China says the U.S. is using power plays to prevent it from developing into a rival superpower.

And while ties seem to be stabilizing for now, both governments must deal with residual bitterness felt in China and the United States after a year of tensions. When the U.S. delegation arrived Saturday, the official China Daily newspaper carried a vituperative attack on U.S. policy toward China. The headline: “US--Not China--Menaces World.”

A China Youth Daily poll of college students and workers taken in May showed that more than half disliked the United States most among the world’s nations, up from 31.3% in 1994. Nearly 94% thought the United States has been “unfriendly” toward China on the Taiwan issue.

Times staff writer Paul Richter in Washington contributed to this report.