France Erects Barriers to U.S. China Policy

For just a moment, it’s time for the United States to put aside its many disagreements over what to do about China and breathe a small sigh of relief and enjoy some self-respect. By one fairly low standard, at least, we Americans look pretty good in our China policy.

At least we’re not France.

In its approach to China, France makes the United States look almost constant, principled and high-minded. Americans wrangle endlessly about whether their policy toward China should be one of engagement, containment or something else. The French don’t agonize about the niceties of defining their relationship.

Last week, France took the lead in abandoning an effort by the European Union and the United States to obtain a United Nations resolution condemning China’s human rights practices. By breaking ranks, France effectively ended several years of efforts by Americans and Europeans to work together on China.

In the process, France managed to demolish one of the central elements in the Clinton administration’s approach to human rights in China--and, at the same time, to undercut European unity. The French change in policy was a big breakthrough for China, which won’t have to worry anymore that there will be formal international criticism of its continuing repression.

There are now signs that France is moving to lift the European ban on weapons sales to China, too, ending the arms embargo that European countries (along with the United States) have maintained since the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989. French Defense Minister Charles Millon was just in Beijing, courting Premier Li Peng and hinting the arms embargo will soon be over.

France’s reversal on China came at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. Each year since 1990, America and the 15 nations of the European Union have sponsored a U.N. resolution calling upon China to release political prisoners, to protect Tibetan culture and to abide by international standards on human rights. The resolution never passed, but the process served the purpose of keeping the spotlight on Chinese repression.

Why is the U.N. resolution important to America’s China policy? For that, a bit of history is in order.

In 1994, after President Clinton abandoned his attempt to link renewals of China’s trade benefits to improvements in human rights, he said he wanted to shift tactics. America should try to team up with other countries in its approach to China, Clinton said.

The U.N. resolution on human rights in China became the heart of this multilateral approach. Each year until 1997, the European Union co-sponsored this resolution along with the U.S.

This year, however, France announced that it wouldn’t go along. At that point, European unity collapsed. Several other European countries decided they didn’t want to criticize China either. Others, notably Denmark and the Netherlands, said they would not retreat from the past European condemnation of China, because China has done nothing to justify any change.

For these actions, China will punish the Danes and Dutch, while handsomely rewarding the French. Last week, China said it will suspend official visits to Denmark and will postpone a Dutch trade mission. Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac, facing nearly 13% unemployment, is scheduled to visit China next month amid reports he will sign a series of new contracts for French business ventures.

France’s intense courtship of Beijing is all the more amazing when you consider the twists and turns of French policy toward China over the last eight years.

Right after the Tiananmen Square massacre, France proudly held itself out as the spiritual home of Chinese dissidents. There were some French suggestions that the Bush administration was too timid, too eager to please Beijing. Within months, France’s support dwindled and many dissidents headed for America.

In 1991-92, France began offering advanced weapons systems to Taiwan, including Mirage jets, thus helping to fuel a new arms race across the Taiwan Straits. This French fling with Taiwan ended when China retaliated by closing a French consulate and freezing a few business deals. Since then, France has been courting, ever more assiduously, the Chinese leadership.

It is tempting to attribute the French policy toward China to sheer commercialism. That’s certainly part of the explanation. But there is also something more: a larger French desire for some new strategy that will perpetuate its sense of national grandeur.

Over the last year, France has seemed determined to challenge American foreign policy around the globe: in the Middle East, in Africa and in NATO, too. Its decision on China, while possibly more important in the long run, is no different from French policy elsewhere.

French leaders may argue validly that they are under no duty to follow the United States on China. However, they are missing the point. The reason for condemning Chinese repression is not because America and other nations are doing so, but because of France’s own traditions.

France used to proclaim the cause of liberte. Now, it is taking the lead in easing international pressure on a regime that has eradicated all vestiges of dissent.

In honor of the cynicism France is displaying in its policy toward China, it would be fitting if Americans celebrated Bastille Day this July in the proper fashion. Not with French champagne, but with a Heineken or Tuborg.

Jim Mann’s column appears in this space every other Wednesday.