Visit to China

As you correctly observe in your May 4 editorial, “A Soft Agenda for Beijing,” any opportunity for concessions desirable to the U.S. disappeared when we agreed to the timing of President Clinton’s upcoming visit to China next month. Equally troubling are the revelations that we have agreed to the Chinese conditions that the president cannot visit any other Asian country on this trip and that the official arrival ceremony will be staged in Tiananmen Square, merely days after the ninth anniversary of the June 4 massacre.

We seem to lack the resolve so necessary in any negotiations with China. Do we not have the right to ask the Chinese to address our concerns just as they expect us to be sensitive to theirs? If we accept their unwillingness to do so now, how will we ever be able to do so in a few years when they are considerably stronger?

ALAN L. GLEITSMAN

Malibu