Gore, in China, Downplays Funding Flap

Vice President Al Gore on Tuesday assured Chinese Premier Li Peng that Sino-U.S. relations will not be hurt by allegations that China illegally contributed to American political campaigns in an effort to influence U.S. policy, a Clinton administration official said.

Li raised the issue during talks on the first full day of Gore’s visit to China, but Gore interrupted him and “said very directly to the prime minister that these allegations very obviously were in the air and they would be there,” the official added.

Gore told Li “the issue is being investigated, but the important point was that this in no way would deflect the administration from pursuing its policy of engagement with China,” said the official, who attended the meeting and briefed the media but spoke on the condition he not be named.

After reading initial news reports, however, a senior administration official in Beijing gathered the reporters traveling with Gore today to tell them that Gore was distressed by the stories. He stressed that Gore “explicitly” told Li that if the charges are proved true, “it would be a serious matter.”

U.S. officials said Li vehemently reiterated his government’s consistent denial that it engaged in any illegal efforts to influence U.S. policy. Li reportedly echoed Gore’s assertion that the affair should not hinder Sino-U.S. relations, which are on a relatively steady footing after years of tension.

Gore is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit China since the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989, and both sides are determined that his four-day trip will pass without controversy.

Plans for the visit--which is seen as a prelude to reciprocal state trips by Chinese President Jiang Zemin and President Clinton over the next year--seemed to be progressing without a hitch until the campaign-finance scandal spotlight focused on China.

In recent months, reports have surfaced that the FBI is investigating whether the Chinese Embassy in Washington engaged in efforts to influence U.S. politics through campaign contributions to the Democratic Party, and that half a dozen members of Congress were warned by the FBI last year that China might try to funnel money to their campaigns in an attempt to gain influence. The Justice Department is investigating some of the charges but has said little about the probe.

Gore’s message Tuesday, in public and private, was that the controversy did not sour his talks.

“Both sides are clearly expressing a desire to lend forward momentum to the relationship, recognizing areas where we agree to disagree,” Gore told reporters as he took a break from meetings and went sightseeing with his wife and three of their children.

Gore stressed that Sino-U.S. relations are moving into a new phase where disagreement does not cause stalemate. “The entire discussion was a very positive one and a very hopeful one,” Gore said.

At a breakfast early this morning with several hundred members of the American Chamber of Commerce of Beijing, Gore was confronted with a question from a U.S. businessman: “Have you received any money from China?”

Gore responded curtly, “No,” and quickly moved on to other subjects.

In his effort to send signals that the U.S. is eager to improve bilateral relations, Gore has found himself in some awkward positions.

During a Tuesday morning event in the central room of the Great Hall of the People, he reviewed Chinese military personnel side by side with Li--the hard-line Communist who issued the declaration of martial law that ended in the deaths of hundreds of peaceful demonstrators in 1989. Li smiled broadly, but Gore was straight-faced as the two walked on a red carpet past the soldiers, airmen and navy men standing at attention.

Later in the day, Gore appeared to be caught off guard by a champagne toast at the end of a deal-signing ceremony he witnessed between state-owned Chinese companies and Boeing Co. and General Motors.

A solemn Gore again stood next to a smiling Li, who eagerly motioned that he would like to clink glasses with the vice president. Gore at first held back, then made a clumsy move toward the premier, sloshing champagne out of his glass. After he took a sip, he quickly put the glass down.

U.S. officials attempted to downplay any ungainliness.

“All I know is that they usually serve champagne when they sign a contract,” said Gore’s national security advisor, Leon Fuerth. “They walked out with [the champagne], and so that was that.”

Gore’s advisors stressed that the conflict over human rights in China--where most voices of dissent are silenced with prison terms and the government shows no sign of improving the situation--is not the stumbling block it once was. When Li and Gore met in Copenhagen in 1995, the Chinese leader angrily attacked Gore over the tough U.S. stance on human rights. The atmosphere was very different Tuesday, aides said.

“They discussed human rights,” Fuerth said. “But it was a conversation. And it left them at the end of that time in a position to take up the next agenda item in a calm and equitable frame of mind.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Cui Tiankai agreed that Gore made it clear that human rights should not be an obstacle to improving relations on other issues, such as trade and the environment.

Times Beijing Bureau Chief Rone Tempest contributed to this report.

* TRADE AID: Trips like Gore’s can help close deals for U.S. companies. D1