Jiang Takes Care of Business During His Tour of New York
When Chinese President Jiang Zemin rang the bell to open trading at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday morning, there was a brief smattering of boos from the trading floor--quickly drowned out by a much larger wave of applause.
That may well describe the larger message Jiang has heard so far on his weeklong journey across America: a few defiant notes of protest, but many more professions of praise and cooperation.
Human rights activists had hoped to impress Jiang with America’s resolve to move China toward democracy, and Clinton administration officials had wanted his help in stopping nuclear proliferation.
But the Chinese leader has actually spent much of his time among friends who are less critical: the leaders of U.S. businesses who see China as their future.
In a day of visits to corporate boardrooms Friday, Jiang’s reception was warm to the point of fawning.
IBM Chairman Louis V. Gerstner Jr. told Jiang, “Your visit to the United States has been not only very important but very successful.” Gerstner, who said his company has been active in China for two decades, asserted that IBM and its Chinese partners are building “a Chinese company, a national asset” in Beijing.
Jiang spent almost an hour in IBM’s executive offices on Madison Avenue, exclaiming appreciatively as George Wang, director of the company’s Beijing research unit, led him through a display of the computer giant’s latest hardware.
Gerstner assured Jiang that the U.S. business community is determined to do everything possible to foster the warmest possible U.S.-China relationship, going far beyond the “narrow issues” that have dominated the two countries’ recent ties.
That was about as close as any of the business leaders got to mentioning China’s human rights record.
Demonstrators in New York protested Chinese suppression of democracy and persecution of religion, as they have at each of the previous stops on Jiang’s American visit, but the Chinese president did not see them because his handlers made sure he was kept well away.
In the boardrooms, Jiang seemed happy and at ease. As TV cameras rolled, including those for China’s nightly newscast, Jiang thanked his hosts and praised their businesses.
When he told Gerstner, “I wish you every success,” to American ears it sounded like a simple courtesy. But specialists on China said such an endorsement from the president could be worth millions of dollars in increased business.
In addition to his visits to Wall Street and IBM, Jiang crossed the Hudson River to tour the suburban New Jersey offices of AT&T; and Lucent Technologies, formerly Bell Laboratories.
He ended the day at a banquet sponsored by the U.S.-China Business Council, a Washington-based group. With just 128 plates set, invitations went only to top officers of firms already doing business in China.
In a speech, Jiang assured the business leaders that “China’s market is open to you.” But he quickly added that it is a competitive market, saying “only those who can seize the opportunities and bring their advantages into play can eventually gain the market share.” Jiang also vented his frustration at what he considers the anti-China practices of the U.S. government.
“For years, the discriminative export control policy by the United States has limited its own exports to China and deprived its firms of many opportunities to gain access to the Chinese market,” he said. “Such practices as imposing sanctions or threatening the use of sanctions not only run counter to the trend of the times but will end up doing nobody any good.”
Jiang has spent much of his time in the United States being wooed by a very select band of American society--leaders of multibillion-dollar corporations, most of which already do business in China and hope to do more.
The human rights protesters are a far more varied group, including conservative religious leaders, liberal civil rights advocates, trade union officials, Hollywood stars and others. But their demonstrations have been kept out of sight for the most part.
“The Chinese will go home saying: ‘It is just as we thought. Trade and strategic issues come first; human rights is out there, but it’s a secondary concern,’ ” said Joseph Massey, a former assistant U.S. trade representative who is now a professor at Dartmouth College’s Amos Tuck School of Business Administration.
*
Richard Brecher, vice president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said corporate leaders are unlikely to raise the issue of human rights even when they meet Jiang behind closed doors.
“In a lot of those meetings, they’re going to be showing off their technology--showing him the advanced nature of their businesses--how big and powerful they are,” Brecher said.
They will “serve as gracious hosts to further cement good relations with important trade partner,” he added.
Brecher said business leaders are unlikely to talk to a foreign political leader about political issues in any case.
And even when corporate executives talk about China’s record on human rights, the message is unlikely to shake Jiang’s conviction that the United States will not allow the issue to interrupt a potentially profitable business relationship, he said.
For instance, when Boeing Chairman Philip Condit was asked recently whether he has any concerns about human rights in China, he responded: “They are the same ones that I have about human rights violations in the United States. . . . I happened to be in China during the Rodney King beating.”
Critics of China’s human rights policies said the summit will reinforce Jiang’s view that the United States does not care enough about the issue to risk lost business.
“It’s not a mixed message,” said Morton Halperin, a senior vice president of the 20th Century Fund, an economic and health care think tank in New York. “The message we’re sending him is that we’re ready not only to do business with him but to treat him the way he wants to be treated.”
He argued that Jiang could conclude that even Clinton’s sharp comments on human rights in Washington on Wednesday were only “something the president does to deal with domestic politics.”
“When you give him a visit like this, what else is he supposed to think?” Halperin asked.
Kempster reported from New York and Shogren from Washington. Times Washington Bureau Chief Doyle McManus contributed to this report.
*
* PLAYING PEACEMAKER: Spokesman Jack Valenti says the rift between Hollywood and China won’t last. D1
