U.S. and China to Broaden Contacts

President Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin agreed today to expand U.S.-China contacts, announcing that both Jiang and Vice President Hu Jintao will soon visit the United States.

Bush and Jiang made the announcement--a further sign of the warming of Sino-U.S.-relations--at a dramatic news conference punctuated by two American reporters’ insistent but polite questioning of Jiang on the degree of religious freedom in China.

Twice, Jiang was able to avoid answering because a Chinese government official abruptly called on Chinese reporters before Jiang could answer the American journalists.

Later, the Chinese president launched into a long and at times highly personal discussion of faith and religious liberty in China, contending that the people in China indeed enjoy such freedom.

Breaking with custom, Jiang began his final answer by speaking in English, opening with a self-effacing quip.

“When it comes to meeting the press, President Bush has much more experience than I,” Jiang said. “I will do my best to answer your question.”

Returning to Chinese, Jiang noted at one point that he was not a man of “religious faith,” yet has read both the Bible and the Koran.

But Jiang added: “Whatever religion people believe in, they have to abide by the law. So some of the lawbreakers have been detained because of their violation of law, not because of their religious belief.”

Religious freedom has emerged as a top issue in Bush’s approach to China, an officially atheistic nation where tens of millions of people have embraced religion nevertheless. Bush and Jiang had also discussed religious faith and freedom in their last meeting, in Shanghai in October.

In South Korea on Wednesday, Bush told reporters that he would call on Jiang to honor the papal nuncio’s request that Beijing open a dialogue with bishops in China. Bush also said he intended to bring up the matter of the Dalai Lama.

The news conference’s dramatic exchanges over religion came shortly after Bush said, as he ended his opening statement:

“All the world’s people, including the people of China, should be free to choose how they live, how they worship and how they work.”

Terry Moran of ABC News asked Jiang to explain “why your government restricts the practice of religious faith--in particular, why your government has imprisoned more than 50 bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.”

The Chinese government forbids recognition of the Vatican, with which it broke off formal diplomatic ties in the 1950s. Catholic missionaries were expelled.

Bush and Jiang said they discussed a wide range of issues and agreed to continue trying to make progress on matters of disagreement.

“Our ties are mature, respectful and important to both our nations and to the world,” Bush declared.

Like Bush, Jiang played down the fact that the U.S. and China have lingering differences, saying it was “natural for China and the United States to disagree on some issues.”

Bush, for instance, reiterated the U.S. commitment to defend Taiwan, which China regards as part of itself.

But the president also praised Jiang for urging North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to accept South Korea’s offer of dialogue and rapprochement.

“That was constructive leadership,” Bush said of Jiang.

On the subject of Iraq, Jiang signaled that China would not support any military action by the United States, a move the Bush administration has been considering.

Bush has been especially pleased with the Communist regime’s general support of the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism.

Still, some of the perennial sticking points in Sino-U.S. relations are expected to arise.

The relationship with the Holy See has been fraught with tension since the break in relations. About 1 1/2 years ago, Pope John Paul II canonized 120 Catholic martyrs in China, which incensed Beijing. Both sides have consecrated their own bishops--the Vatican secretly--in China, in a battle for hearts and minds.

Last week, the Vatican’s news agency said that dozens of priests and bishops in China loyal to the pope had been detained and that more were being watched.

But the pope is known to want a rapprochement with Beijing and even issued an apology last year for the Roman Catholic Church’s past wrongs in China.

The Communist regime has insisted that any reconciliation would have to satisfy two demands: that the Vatican sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan and that it could not interfere in China’s internal affairs “by conducting religious activities.”

Bush’s visit comes just a week after a U.S.-based religious rights group released secret Chinese documents purporting to show a government-ordered crackdown on religion.

At the same time, the Communist regime has continued its drive to stamp out the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which mobilized more than 40 foreigners last Thursday to demonstrate in Tiananmen Square in support of the outlawed group. The protesters were detained and then expelled.

Yet there also have been signals here that Beijing may be on the verge of relaxing some of its religious restrictions.

Earlier this month, possibly as a gesture ahead of Bush’s visit, Beijing released a Hong Kong businessman imprisoned for smuggling Bibles into the country, which the government says were bound for a sect called the Shouters. The Bush administration had expressed concern over the man’s imprisonment.

Among the other sticking points in bilateral relations are China’s human rights abuses and its assistance to countries such as Pakistan and Iran in arming themselves.

China agreed in November 2000 to start restricting the sale of sensitive nuclear equipment and know-how. But Beijing has not begun formulating export control rules and a list of sensitive technologies, according to U.S. officials.

Last fall, the U.S. imposed sanctions on a Chinese firm suspected of sending military equipment to Pakistan. Several months later, the U.S. levied sanctions against Chinese companies suspected of providing assistance to Iran.

The president and First Lady Laura Bush were to attend a dinner in their honor tonight, to be given by Jiang at the Great Hall of the People.

On Friday, Bush is to deliver an address at Qinghua University and then field questions from students at the prestigious school.

Bush said he was looking forward to meeting with the students “because it gives me an opportunity to talk about the America I know--an America with strong values of family, community, faith and freedom.”

In his weekly radio address over the weekend previewing his six-day trip to Tokyo, Seoul and here, Bush said:

“And I will express my hopes that as China moves forward, it, too, will embrace the universal demands of human dignity, freedom of conscience and religion, and the rights and value of every life.”

Last but not least, Bush will have a chance to take the initial measure of the man expected to lead China’s 1.3 billion people starting next year.

Vice President Hu is due to take over after Jiang retires as president in early 2003. Little is known abroad about Hu, except that he was anointed by the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to succeed Jiang.

Hu is scheduled to introduce Bush at Qinghua on Friday.

Jiang is to visit the U.S. in October. No date was given for Hu’s visit.