U.S. Democracy Heats Up Jiang’s Visit

Senate and House foreign policy committees gave a parade of Chinese dissidents and U.S. human rights advocates a forum to denounce Chinese President Jiang Zemin on Tuesday, a few hours before he arrived in Washington for talks with President Clinton.

While Jiang began his day touring historic Williamsburg, Va., the restored 18th century village where Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and others gave voice to their American revolutionary ideals, events on Capitol Hill showcased late 20th century U.S. democracy, marked by increasing tension between Clinton and key lawmakers over China policy.

Although the congressional witnesses had told their stories before, their appearance on the eve of the summit gave the accounts an official stamp, at least from the legislative branch of government.

The events sponsored by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the human rights subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee kicked off a planned week of protests against Jiang and his government’s suppression of democracy, religion and Tibetan nationalism.

Jiang arrived in Washington late Tuesday afternoon and at 9 p.m. went into a pre-summit White House meeting with Clinton. The purpose was to set the tone for today’s formal talks, which both governments hope will put Sino-U.S. relations on a new and more businesslike footing after years of mutual suspicion.

A White House spokesman said Clinton discussed several issues, including human rights, Taiwan and Tibet, at Tuesday night’s meeting, which lasted for 90 minutes.

Clinton also gave Jiang a 15-minute nighttime tour of the White House, the spokesman said. At one point, the president showed the Chinese leader a copy of the Gettysburg Address. Jiang has been known to proudly recite the first lines of the speech, in English, to American visitors to China.

“This is not a one-issue summit,” Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told reporters Tuesday. “This is a broad-based summit which is to show the importance of having a broad-based and multifaceted relationship with a country the size and importance of China.”

The Clinton-Jiang meetings are not expected to produce electrifying breakthroughs between the two countries, which differ on a range of issues. U.S. officials view them as a chance to strengthen American efforts to engage Beijing, an approach that critics assail as ineffective.

Although the engagement approach has support in Congress and among the public--especially from business-oriented groups that see the potential for profit in increased U.S.-China trade--a noisy coalition that includes liberals, conservatives, religious organizations and secular human rights groups is determined to push China’s human rights record to the forefront.

The administration maintains that the only alternative to engagement is an effort to isolate China. Critics, however, argue that the United States can produce changes in Chinese policy and still avoid driving a wedge between the two governments, by speaking out more against the abuses.

“No one is more in favor of engagement with China than I am,” said California Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), ranking minority member of the International Relations subcommittee on international operations and human rights. “What we want is an engagement that is [consistent] with American ideals and values.”

But he heaped scorn on Clinton’s business-driven approach. He accused corporations of ignoring China’s human rights lapses on the assumption that “making deals with the devil is a long-term strategy for economic development.”

Chinese officials have long maintained that U.S. efforts to influence their country’s policies regarding human rights amount to interference in its internal affairs.

“I hope Americans will understand that American democracy and freedom are not absolute concepts,” Jiang said at a news conference in Beijing before he left.

The House subcommittee, headed by Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), conducted a formal hearing on Chinese human rights Tuesday. An aide to Smith said the House leadership had been reluctant to permit such a hearing, but House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) gave his approval Friday afternoon after two weeks of negotiations.

“When I first proposed holding this hearing, I heard from some Republicans and some Democrats that it would be inappropriate--even in poor taste--to discuss such sensitive issues while Jiang is in town,” Smith said.

“With respect, this kind of criticism gets it exactly backwards,” he said. “Torture, mass public executions, forced abortion and sterilization, the arrest and imprisonment of democracy advocates and religious believers--these are in poor taste. Bearing witness to these atrocities, telling the whole truth about them, is the best way I can think of to say ‘Welcome to America, Mr. Jiang.’ ”

Testifying to Smith’s subcommittee, Harry Wu, a former Chinese labor camp inmate who now lives in Milpitas, Calif., accused China, as he has in the past, of executing political prisoners and criminals to obtain their kidneys and other organs for transplant. He said that last year, China performed 2,792 kidney transplants and at least 4,367 executions, implying a connection between the two statistics.

Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House, a political advocacy group, said that as many as 40% of the inmates in some Chinese labor camps were imprisoned for participating in unauthorized Christian religious groups.

In an attempt to defuse criticism of its treatment of religious groups, China has invited three U.S. religious leaders--a Protestant, a Roman Catholic and a Jew--to make a firsthand inspection.

In the Senate, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) did not convene a formal hearing. Instead, he invited a group of Chinese dissidents to a reception with committee members, then paraded them in front of reporters and television cameras.

Li Lu, who described himself as a survivor of the 1989 crackdown against protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, said the administration had failed China’s political prisoners by not demanding their release in advance of the summit.

Earlier Tuesday, Jiang and his wife, Wang Yeping, visited the tourist village in Colonial Williamsburg. Jiang put on a black three-cornered hat, and his wife was given a straw hat adorned with magenta and ivory ribbons and white lace.

As the couple toured the governor’s palace in the historic village, an estimated 100 demonstrators chanted for human rights in China and freedom for Tibet.

Jiang’s U.S. visit will include other symbols of American liberty, notably the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Lantos told the House human rights subcommittee that “seeking out the most sacred places of democracy will not suffice to cover up the shameful Chinese human rights record.”

A senior administration official said the United States and China are expected to reach agreement today on a broad strategy aimed at giving U.S. firms an increased role in developing the energy resources needed to fuel the growth of China’s economy.

Times staff writer Jim Mann contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Summit Issues

The issues facing China and the United States during this week’s summit include:

MILITARY

China wants . . . The United States to say that it does not consider China to be the enemy; also wants to discuss North Korea.

U.S. wants . . . China to say it does not want the United States to pull it forces out of Asia; like China, wants to discuss North Korea.

****

HUMAN RIGHTS

China wants . . . The United States to drop efforts to have China condemned by the United Nations over human rights.

U.S. wants . . . Release of two Chinese dissidents; approval of U.N. human rights covenants; Red Cross inspections of Chinese prisons.

****

TRADE

China wants . . . Entry into the World Trade Organization, which sets ground rules for global commerce; also seeks permanent extension of most-favored-nation trade benefits.

U.S. wants . . . China to join WTO, but only in Beijing lifts barriers to foreign countries doing business in China.

****

TAIWAN

China wants . . . The United States to reaffirm its promise, made in 1982, to reduce arms sales to Taiwan.

U.S. wants . . . A promise from China that it will stick to peaceful means in trying to take control of Taiwan.

Source: Times Washington Bureau