China Balks at Concessions Timed to Clinton’s June Trip

China took a hard line Thursday in intense negotiations over President Clinton’s upcoming trip here, turning aside requests by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to make concessions timed to the presidential visit.

Albright, joined by a host of other U.S. officials, appealed for changes in China’s policies on issues such as Tibet, human rights, trade and weapons proliferation. But after two days of meetings, she and her aides could point to little or no progress in these areas.

Instead, the Chinese adopted uncompromising positions, often returning to old words and formulas. On Tibet, for example, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Tang Guoqiang unleashed a lengthy denunciation of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. The Clinton administration is urging China to begin talks with the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland four decades ago and has campaigned from exile against Chinese rule there. But Tang said Thursday that the Dalai Lama should “size up the situation [and] forgo his illusions.”

Rather than easing their policies, Chinese officials told the administration to give ground by lifting all remaining sanctions imposed on China after the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square nine years ago. Tang repeated Beijing’s oft-stated view that the regime was right to call in the army and end the demonstrations.

Clinton’s trip to China, scheduled for late June, will be the first presidential visit since the 1989 crackdown. Albright and other U.S. officials came here to see what agreements can be reached in time for Clinton’s trip. While China may be unyielding now, it could still make concessions, and officials traveling with Albright said negotiations on subjects such as arms control and human rights continue.

But some experts believe that there won’t be significant or far-reaching agreements for Clinton--because his visit alone will be a great success for the Chinese. “All the Chinese need is for Clinton to be there. They don’t need anything else,” said Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, a China scholar at Georgetown University in Washington. U.S. officials, though, “need something concrete to explain why the president is going to China and is going in June,” the month of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

Albright met Thursday with China’s two top leaders, President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji. Afterward, both Chinese and American officials characterized the talks as friendly.

When Clinton met with the Chinese president in Washington in October, he offered forthright, public denunciations of China’s Communist system. At a news conference, the president told Jiang that the Chinese regime is on “the wrong side of history.”

By contrast, Albright--often regarded as one of the strongest human rights advocates in the administration--seemed to go out of her way here this week to avoid confrontation with Chinese leaders. At a news conference, she emphasized the importance of talks with China, rather than policy changes. “One of the real benefits of the kind of dialogue the U.S. and China are developing is that it allows officials in both countries to be quite frank, even in public, without disrupting our joint efforts to improve relations,” she said.

Both she and her aides sought to emphasize points of U.S.-China agreement and downplay their differences.

Asked about Tibet, Albright said that she and Chinese leaders had had “quite lengthy and intensive discussions on Tibet, as an issue that is of great import to us.”

Another U.S. official suggested Thursday that the purpose of Clinton’s visit will be not so much to change Chinese policies as to alter China’s negative image in the United States. A goal of the trip will be to “generate popular support back home for improving U.S.-China relations,” this official said, adding that Clinton “wants to put a human face on U.S.-China relations.”

For that reason, Clinton aides are trying to arrange events in which the president can appear with ordinary Chinese, as well as this nation’s top leaders.

At a midday news conference, Foreign Ministry spokesman Tang threw cold water on several recent administration proposals. On Cambodia, for example, U.S. officials have tried to persuade China to support the idea of an international war crimes tribunal for leaders of the Khmer Rouge, under whose regime more than 1 million people died between 1975 and 1979. Pol Pot, the top Khmer Rouge leader, died last month, but several of his aides are still alive.

But China publicly rejected this initiative, with Tang arguing that what happens with Khmer Rouge leaders “is an internal affair of Cambodia. . . . Outsiders should not interfere.”

As reported in The Times, China has rejected an administration proposal to join the Missile Technology Control Regime, a 29-nation group that seeks to stop the spread of missiles. Tang on Thursday called the group “exclusive” and “discriminatory.”

Chinese leaders also appeared to press the administration to give more on the issue of Taiwan before Clinton’s visit. China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, although the island of 21 million people has its own elected government and has not been ruled from the mainland for more than a century.

Tang declared that Taiwan is “at the core of Sino-U.S. relations” and suggested that the administration should reach new agreement with China that Washington will not support independence for the island.

At a news conference, Albright seemed to suggest that Clinton might sign a new communique about Taiwan during his visit. But aides then hurriedly told reporters such a move will not happen.

With the U.S. trade deficit with China running about $50 billion a year, Albright also said the administration wants Beijing to “go faster” in lifting barriers that prevent U.S. companies from exporting goods to China.

But U.S. officials said an accord to bring China into the World Trade Organization before or during Clinton’s trip is unlikely. There is a chance for a limited deal, representing a step for China toward WTO membership, U.S. officials said.

* TIBETANS’ STRUGGLE: Martyr points up Tibet’s frustrating bid for autonomy. A12