Aides Propose Regular Talks for Clinton, Jiang

U.S. and Chinese officials have decided that President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin will meet regularly with one another, according to Clinton administration officials, giving an extraordinary top-level dimension to contacts between the two governments.

The agreement for the series of meetings has been worked out in preparations for next week’s state visit by Jiang to Washington, the first of its kind since before China’s 1989 crackdown on protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

If the two leaders carry through on the idea, the U.S. and Chinese presidents would meet far more frequently than their predecessors did even in the years of much closer relations before the 1989 crackdown. In practical terms, the agreement means that Clinton and Jiang could meet at least two or three times after next week’s session here.

“It’s important to do this,” explained one Clinton administration official. “They [Chinese leaders] have gotten used to dealing [directly] with presidents ever since the days of Richard Nixon.”

In fact, by holding regular summits with Jiang, Clinton would go well beyond what Nixon did. No U.S. president has met more than once with the top leader of the People’s Republic of China while in office. Nixon and President Ford each met once with Mao Tse-tung, and Presidents Carter, Reagan and Bush each met once with “paramount leader” Deng Xiaoping, who died in February.

By comparison, since taking office in 1993 Clinton has held five summit meetings with Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin.

Clinton already has sat down with Jiang on four occasions during international gatherings such as a United Nations conference or annual meetings of leaders from Asia and the Pacific Rim. However, none of those sessions were full-scale summit meetings in Washington or Beijing. At the time, Deng was still alive and Jiang had not been confirmed as his successor.

Summits represent an important tool in building relationships between the major powers, helping the leaders to focus attention on key issues--be they trade, human rights or arms control--and to force their own potentially slow bureaucracies to move forward and forge new agreements.

Speaking about next week’s Jiang-Clinton meeting, National Security Advisor Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger said recently that “regular summits with the president of China are valuable in their own right.”

So far, Clinton administration officials have said in public only that there would be two such meetings between the United States and China--the one next week and a return visit by Clinton to Beijing next year.

Another Clinton administration official cautioned that planning regular meetings does not necessarily mean that Clinton and Jiang will meet exactly once a year. “It doesn’t mean on a fixed schedule,” he said.

Another U.S. official emphasized that the plan is for full-scale meetings that go beyond the more casual talks between Clinton and Jiang at places such as the United Nations.

The concept of regular top-level meetings is one of a series of measures aimed at broadening the network of ties between the two governments.

At next week’s talks, the two sides also are preparing to announce creation of a “hotline” between Washington and Beijing and the start of regular meetings between officials on Cabinet and sub-Cabinet levels in the United States and China. The Pentagon also has been working on an increase in military-to-military contacts with China, which already have become extensive in recent months.

Another issue under discussion between Washington and Beijing is a possible lifting of all the U.S. sanctions against China that have been in place since 1989.

China is pressing hard for an end to what are commonly called the “Tiananmen sanctions.” These include a ban on military-related transfers from the United States to China, a ban on the Overseas Private Investment Corp. providing risk insurance for U.S. firms in China and a ban on a U.S. trade assistance program.

These sanctions have been considered important by both sides mostly for symbolic reasons. However, some of the sanctions also have important practical consequences. For example, the U.S. helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft Co. has been prevented by the Tiananmen sanctions from supplying China with spare parts for the 24 civilian Black Hawk helicopters it sold in 1984.

In interviews, U.S. officials acknowledged that the administration is considering what to do about the Tiananmen sanctions. However, one senior official said that, even if the sanctions are lifted, “there are not going to be military sales [to China]. That’s not under discussion.”

It remains unclear, however, whether the Clinton administration might open the way for more sales of “dual-use” items--those that can be used for either civilian or military purposes.

The Chinese regime has not changed its view of the Tiananmen crackdown of June 4, 1989, in which hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed.

“Facts have shown that the Chinese government was forced to take radical measures to enforce social stability, so that economic development would not be disrupted,” said Yu Shuning, press counselor to the Chinese Embassy.