U.S.-China Relationship: Where’s the Trust? : Unless that develops, Gore’s visit will mean little

Vice President Al Gore summed up his two days of top-level talks in Beijing by confidently asserting that “a strong consensus” in the United States favors continued engagement with China and promising that the Clinton administration will seek closer and stronger ties. The need for engagement is all but unavoidable anyway, given China’s size, its ambitions in Asia and globally, and its activities in matters that directly affect U.S. interests. But that is no guarantee that a necessary relationship will also be a pleasant or constructive one.

The facts of the relationship in the wake of the Gore visit don’t appear to have changed significantly. Sharp and fundamental differences between the two countries remain, over policies--China’s trade restrictions and arms sales, for example--and values, most notably in regard to how a state should treat its citizens.

Gore, the most senior U.S. official to visit China since the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square, touched on all these issues in his Beijing talks. But no one on the American side has tried to claim any major breakthroughs. As one sign of impasse, the United States is again preparing to ask the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva to criticize Beijing for its repressive internal policies.

Hovering over Gore’s trip were allegations that China tried to influence last year’s American presidential campaign with illegal cash contributions to the Democratic ticket. Beijing’s assurances to Gore that it had investigated the allegations and found no substance are not likely to be taken as the final word. Gore declared himself to be in no position to judge their credibility. But the campaign controversy at least got an airing.

Another key issue, China’s plans for Hong Kong, due to revert to Beijing’s sovereignty on July 1, appears to have commanded little if any attention. Yet how China meets its responsibilities in Hong Kong, especially in the civil rights it chooses to allow or deny, is certain to have a deep impact on American public and political opinion. China’s dismal record of intolerance toward political dissent and the disregard it has already shown for the commitments it made to Hong Kong in its 1984 treaty with Britain are far from encouraging.

Continued U.S.-China engagement, as we noted, can be productive. But engagement that lacks the energizing force of trust isn’t going to achieve very much. Trust is something that has to be earned, by behavior and deeds. Clinking champagne glasses in the Great Hall of the People is not the kind of behavior that counts.