Albright Meets Leaders in China

Making her fifth and probably last visit here as the United States’ chief envoy, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met China’s top leaders Thursday to discuss virtually every issue except the one that has overshadowed Sino-U.S. relations for most of the last 13 months.

“The bombing did not come up,” Albright said tersely when asked about the U.S. airstrike on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade last year during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s war against Yugoslavia.

Relations between the world’s most powerful nation and its most populous one thus finally appeared back to normal after months of Chinese recriminations and U.S. apologies over an attack that the Clinton administration insists was a tragic mistake.

“Based on today’s discussions, I expect the next six months will be very busy and, I hope, a very productive period in U.S.-China relations,” Albright told a news conference here.

Albright’s farewell visit included separate meetings with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji, Vice Premier Qian Qichen and Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan.

But Albright said she had no plans to meet another official guest here: Iran’s reformist president, Mohammad Khatami. Iranian flags fluttered around Tiananmen Square, where Khatami was to receive a formal welcome.

Albright publicly welcomed the election of a pro-Khatami parliament earlier this year, and the Clinton administration has eased several trade sanctions in hopes of improving long-frozen relations with Tehran. Khatami arrived within hours of Albright on Thursday, and they stayed at the same hotel. “It’s a pretty big hotel,” Albright said.

Albright said her talks here initially focused on reaffirming Washington’s support of China’s planned accession to the World Trade Organization, as well as the recent House vote to approve permanent normal trade relations with China.

The talks later broadened to include U.S. concerns about the future of Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province, and prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula after this month’s remarkable summit between North and South Korean leaders, she said.

Albright said she and the Chinese also discussed the “possibility for additional cooperation” on several fronts, including nonproliferation, the environment, the judiciary and counter-terrorism.

U.S. and Chinese officials said Albright’s talks largely continued dialogue, rather than produced clear progress, on the major issues that divide the two governments. They include China’s crackdown on the Falun Gong sect and other human rights abuses, its control of Tibet, U.S. proposals to build a missile defense system, and Taiwan.

Albright said she appealed to President Jiang to resume talks with Taiwan, even at a low level, and to forswear intimidation. A senior State Department official said later that Albright also urged Jiang to be “creative and flexible” in dealing with Taiwan’s new president, Chen Shui-bian.

Albright said China’s rulers are still trying to size up the Taiwanese leader. “I think that they are questioning basically who he is, what his motives are, how he’s going to operate,” she said.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said late Thursday that it expects China to begin live-fire military exercises as early as today along the coast of China not far from Taiwan. The State Department official said he could not confirm the report and that it had not come up in Albright’s meetings.

The U.S. official said that Jiang described North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who met with Chinese officials here three weeks ago, as “very logical, energetic and polite, very polite,” and that Jiang made “constant references to his wit.”

The official declined to provide details of Albright’s talks about China’s missile exports.

Albright largely praised China’s record of nonproliferation. She cited Beijing’s “systematic improvement” over the years, including its joining various international arms control pacts.

She said Undersecretary of State John Holum will visit Beijing next month for further talks.