In Goodwill Bid, China Invites Bush to Visit

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji struck a friendly note with the fledgling U.S. administration Thursday, acknowledging a lack of familiarity with the new players in Washington but expressing hope for good relations.

China’s No. 3 leader also announced that President Bush had been invited to Beijing in October for a state visit. In Washington, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said the president “is very pleased to have received the invitation to visit China. And we are considering how we can respond at this time.”

Zhu said China and the United States can work together, whether Americans view his nation as a partner or a competitor.

“Partnership and competition are not always at odds with each other,” Zhu said during his annual meeting with reporters, speaking in the no-nonsense, almost folksy style that has become his hallmark both at home and abroad.

“Countries compete and cooperate at the same time,” he said. “I’m pleased to hear from [Secretary of State Colin L.] Powell that although China and the U.S. are competitors, China and the U.S. are indeed partners in the field of trade. And he also holds the view that China and the U.S. should cooperate in other areas, so I don’t think the differences are very serious.”

The conciliatory remarks came just a few days before the highest-level Sino-U.S. meeting since Bush’s inauguration in January. China is dispatching its top foreign policy official, Vice Premier Qian Qichen, to the White House next week for a meeting that could set the tone for what many analysts say will be the most important international relationship in the coming years.

Beijing is eager for a good start. On Wednesday, a senior Chinese official offered to open a dialogue with Washington on the thorny issue of a proposed U.S. national missile defense shield, which Beijing strongly opposes.

Zhu, third in power behind President Jiang Zemin and top legislator Li Peng, said it will take time for the two sides to get to know each other.

“There’s a need for better communication,” he said, but China wants “to bring about a long-term, stable relationship with the United States.”

Bush and Jiang already are scheduled to meet in October at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering in Shanghai, and Zhu suggested that Bush might combine the event with a state visit to Beijing.

In a wide-ranging, two-hour news conference at the close of China’s parliament, Zhu also addressed pressing domestic issues.

He defended the government’s explanation of what happened last week in Jiangxi province, where an explosion at a primary school killed at least 42 people.

Residents have told journalists that students were forced to assemble firecrackers in class to earn extra money for the school.

The government insists that a psychotic villager blew up the school.

The flap over Zhu’s handling of the Jiangxi tragedy, as well as the difficulties hampering his economic reforms, have caused some China watchers to speculate that his star within the leadership has fallen.

In 1998, Zhu’s first news conference as premier brimmed with confidence and ambition. His reform agenda impressed almost everyone in and outside of China, and he seemed to be on a roll.

Several setbacks, such as the effects of an Asian financial crisis and resistance from other officials, have since forced him to regroup or to slow down some of the reforms.

“He hasn’t really delivered, at least at the moment,” said Stanley Rosen, a China expert at USC.

But it is too early to say with any certainty whether the man is as seriously diminished in stature, power and even energy as some have suggested. His term of office runs until 2003, and in typically feisty tones, the 72-year-old leader promised to be back before reporters next year and the year after.

A number of tough challenges remain. One major potential source of instability--the Communist regime’s biggest fear--is the growing income gap between urban and rural parts of the country.

“I don’t think it has reached a very serious level yet,” Zhu said. But he added that the regime is committed to reducing the tax burden on China’s 800 million farmers.

In a potentially far-reaching policy shift, Zhu pledged to re-centralize taxation, abolishing the fees levied by county and village authorities.

At present, Beijing collects only one-quarter of the $14.5 billion squeezed out of farmers every year by bureaucrats at all levels. The central government would increase its take to $6 billion, eliminate local taxes and grant $3 billion or so in subsidies to poor areas.

Most important in such places, Zhu said, will be reforming public education--which accounts for most of local authority spending--so that schooling is available and efficient.

Indeed, cash-strapped campuses such as the one that exploded last week have had to turn to running businesses to pay expenses. Parents are required to fork over money for everything from chalk to report cards. Millions of children drop out of school because of the cost.

As a result, one of the Communist Party’s most attractive promises, free education for all, has withered in many places. “We are determined that compulsory education is made available to every child in the countryside,” Zhu said.