China’s President Will Tour U.S. as Pop Culture Villainizes His Nation

Rock bands thunder for freedom in Tibet. News reports probe Beijing’s alleged links to the U.S. campaign finance scandal. High-profile movies portray China as sinister and scary, a society that tramples liberties Americans take for granted.

Today, as Chinese President Jiang Zemin embarks on the first state visit to the United States by a Chinese leader in 12 years, the message that awaits him from popular American culture is loud, emphatic--and negative.

“I think there’s a feeling that something is not right about the way China relates to Hong Kong, to Taiwan, to Tibet, to the world,” said Orville Schell, dean of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and a veteran China-watcher who is writing a book about Western views of Tibet. “And the feeling has jumped the firewall between policymakers and popular culture.”

The frosty cultural reception in store for Jiang is just the latest turn in a public view of China that has swung sharply between romanticized hopes and exaggerated fears, according to foreign policy specialists, who suggest that many Americans understand little about Chinese society. A recent opinion poll indicates that almost half the public views China as a serious problem.

“Either China is a close ally, a wonderful culture, a place with great cuisine . . . or it’s a threat, a place of rampaging Red Guards, something for deep concern,” Richard H. Solomon, another longtime China-watcher and a former U.S. official, said of the “love-hate” feelings for the giant nation. “And there isn’t a whole lot in the middle.

“For some reason,” he added, “Americans get very worked up about China.”

China’s prominent position on the radar screen of Hollywood and popular culture in general adds pressure to Jiang’s visit, pressure that could complicate matters for the Clinton administration, which has committed itself to a policy of engaging China rather than confronting it. Some observers wonder how Jiang, who has staked great personal prestige on a successful visit, will fare amid the hurly-burly of U.S. democracy.

While the Clinton administration will do what it can to make its visitor feel welcome, Jiang could encounter situations that no one can control.

“We don’t know how he will project on television or in the Congress, or how he will handle a protest at Harvard or somewhere else,” said Solomon, who worked for the National Security Council during the Nixon administration and now runs the United States Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan research group. “Will he keep his cool?”

For many Americans, the formative impressions of China were of a hostile enemy in the 1950s, one that attacked American troops during the Korean War with terrifying “human wave” assaults. In the 1960s, chaotic images of Red Guards running wild, the autocratic rule of Mao Tse-tung and China’s proximity to U.S. soldiers in Vietnam did nothing to ease American anxieties.

President Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972 was a historic turning point. Suddenly, a stream of cheerful images beamed out of a land that had been seen as the enemy: a smiling Nixon visiting the Great Wall, Nixon in the Forbidden City, Nixon the guest of honor at a lavish banquet.

Inevitably, the euphoria faded. But the next great turning point did not come until 1989, with China’s brutal crackdown on political dissent in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. “I think that sums up the way a lot of Americans still view China, that nothing has happened since Tiananmen and we should treat China as if Tiananmen had just occurred,” said Kenneth Lieberthal, a China scholar at the University of Michigan.

Although academics debate just how China should be viewed, images of a threatening power were reinforced in 1996 by military exercises near Taiwan, an ominous signal as Taiwan--which Beijing considers its territory--prepared for its first direct presidential election.

China’s economy, meanwhile, has burgeoned in a manner that combines the feverish growth of a small nation with the power and influence of a large one. One consequence: The U.S. trade deficit with China could far exceed $40 billion this year, economists say, fueling complaints that China exploits its labor force and is an unfair trading partner.

Not surprisingly, opinion surveys point to public concern about China. Almost half--46%--of adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in September viewed China as a “serious problem.” At the same time, only 14% went so far as to call China an “adversary.”

“If you asked people: ‘Do you like China? Is China a popular country?’ people would largely say no,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew center. Still, Kohut believes there is a vast gulf between the anti-China passions of activists and the largely detached view many Americans have of foreign affairs.

“If you asked, ‘Is China something that you’re worried about?’ people also are going to say no,” he said.

Tibet might seem a far more arcane concern to Americans than the broader issues related to China, the nation that dominates it. Nevertheless, in a twist of fortune, the cause of Tibet has caught on in the entertainment world, a phenomenon some call “Tibet chic” and one that could prove inconvenient for Jiang.

Groups such as the Beastie Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2 and others have performed in California and New York at benefit concerts for the Milarepa Fund, which supports human rights in Tibet.

China-related movies--three over the next few months, including “Seven Years in Tibet” and “Red Corner”--may be followed by others now being developed with film smuggled into and out of the region, Schell said.

He continued: “Not that the Generation Xers are going to be filled with the fire of Tibet, but most had no idea of where it was. And suddenly, the bands that they worship are getting up with these monks that have been tortured.”

For years, Chinese officials have used access to their lucrative market as a lever in their dealings with Western business executives. Similarly, they have convinced U.S. officials that confrontational demands regarding human rights and other differences will only backfire and reduce Washington’s influence.

“They dealt nicely with the businessmen,” Schell said. “They’ve dealt well with Washington. But it’s a lot harder to deal with public opinion and popular culture.”

* CASE STUDIES IN REFORM: James Flanigan on promise, perils of China’s restructuring. D1