A Tough List for Zhu

On the sliding scale of U.S.-China relations, Premier Zhu Rongji begins an eight-day visit to America today at a sour point. Let us count the ways: Beijing is demanding that NATO halt its air offensive in Yugoslavia; trade remains a contentious bilateral issue, and human rights abuses, as always, will be high on the list when the premier meets President Clinton Thursday in Washington.

Zhu has made a reputation as a polished, energetic leader in China, but he’ll find the going tough on fundamentals of the bilateral relationship. It’s to his credit that he’s making the trip at all in these turbulent times. Yet to cancel would have been a mistake; this relationship needs constant work and understanding.

On foreign affairs, China stands squarely opposed to the NATO air assaults on the Yugoslavian forces uprooting the culture and people of Kosovo; China has done plenty of its own cultural uprooting when calls for autonomy have been raised in Tibet. But of far greater concern to China is Taiwan, which Beijing still insists is a province of China. The parallel with the province of Kosovo must be uncomfortably obvious. The crisis in Yugoslavia is bound to color the talks between Clinton and Zhu. So might The Times Sunday Report that disclosed the alleged funneling of $300,000 from China’s military intelligence chief to Clinton’s 1996 presidential campaign.

“When the relationship is bad, we need more visits of this kind,” said a key official of the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

So the premier is going to Washington Thursday to work on the bilateral relationship and to make China’s case for its No. 1 issue: membership in the World Trade Organization. Success will require a comprehensive trade agreement, which appears close but not yet nailed. American and Chinese officials have been working for weeks now toward agreement and China has made concessions, but it might take president-to-premier negotiations to narrow the gap.

Zhu opens his trip with a stop today in Los Angeles. Mayor Richard Riordan will host a lunch for him with 600 people at the Century Plaza Hotel. That should be a friendly start to a tough week for the premier. Compromise in Washington could top it off. Weighing trade against human rights is difficult business, but some give on both sides, well monitored, can make a difference.