Saturday, May 29, 1999
U.S.-China relations hit
By Richard Halloran
rock bottom as Prueher
tapped for Beijing
Special to the Star-BulletinA year of turbulence between Washington and Beijing has plunged United States relations with China to their lowest point since Chinese and Americans fought each other in the Korean War of 1950-1953.
Quarrels between the two capitals erupt almost by the day. The latest exploded this week with the release of the long awaited Cox report on alleged Chinese theft of U.S. nuclear secrets and 20 years of intelligence operations in the United States through 3,000 "front" companies.
The chairman of the bipartisan House committee that compiled the report, Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., said China "has mounted a widespread effort to obtain U.S. military technology by any means, legal or illegal."
Chinese officials at first scoffed at the report as the work of Americans "clinging to the Cold War mentality," then fired a furious barrage asserting that it raised "the specter of McCarthyism," was a "witch-hunt" filled with "malign slander," and was a "fabrication" that should be repudiated by President Clinton.
Overshadowed by the espionage report was a 418-0 resolution in the House of Representatives to mark the 10th anniversary of the pro-democracy demonstration in Tiananmen square in which Chinese soldiers killed unknown hundreds of protesters. From Beijing, the foreign ministry's spokesman said: "By making irresponsible remarks on China's internal affairs, they have fully revealed their anti-China political face."
Several days earlier, the Chinese rendered a modern version of an ancient tactic intended to accentuate Chinese superiority by keeping the barbarian waiting at the gate. President Jiang Zemin stalled for a week before picking up the telephone to accept President Clinton's apologies for the NATO bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade in early May. Clinton said the bombing was an accident; Jiang insisted it was a deliberate hit intended to humiliate China.
Afterward, Jiang asserted, "The United States continues to pursue hegemonism and power politics, and wantonly interferes in the internal affairs of other countries."
He was reinforced by the Communist Party's People's Daily, which contended that the recent expansion of NATO, a new U.S.-Japan defense agreement, and "aggression against Yugoslavia" were part of a U.S. strategy for "world hegemony." Hegemony is China's buzzword for domination.
Those statements and the assault on the American embassy in Beijing by government-sponsored demonstrators have triggered a backlash. A former ambassador to Beijing, Winston Lord, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying "the Beijing government has exploited the NATO blunder in an extremely provocative, irresponsible and dangerous manner."
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, told the London Daily Telegraph, "They have got to start showing some maturity here and right now; otherwise we are going to end up in a confrontation which is in the interest of neither country."
In Washington, President Clinton's China policy is in tatters, shredded by the Congress, by dissent within the administration, and even by the drawn-out search for a new ambassador to replace James Sasser, who planned to resign long before his embassy was trashed by protesters.
The position was offered to five or six others before it was accepted by Adm. Joseph Prueher, the former commander of U.S. Pacific forces with headquarters in Honolulu at Camp Smith. Those refusals were a silent critique of Clinton's China policy because, in American tradition, rarely does anyone turn down a president's request to serve.
Prueher's nomination has been under a cloud. The staff of the National Security Council leaked word of his appointment two weeks ago, perhaps as a trial balloon. Critics in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill have contended that Prueher became too cozy with Chinese leaders in promoting military exchanges even though his message was explicit: Do not miscalculate U.S. military capabilities.
White House spokesmen did not deny the leaks but neither did they confirm them. Prueher has had no comment on his nomination, which must be confirmed by the Senate. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. and a critic of the president's policy toward China, heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that will conduct hearings. Close scrutiny of China policy can be expected.
Prueher will most likely advocate the balanced strategy he forged during his tenure as Pacific commander. "I think our approach needs to be one of respect and also of strength in dealing and working and moving forward with the Chinese," he said in an interview just before leaving Hawaii.
A lean, intense fighter pilot who has read Chinese history and enjoys quizzing specialists on China, Prueher said he believed the Chinese would seek to revive the Middle Kingdom, in which China dominated Asia: "They would like to have everyone in the region have to have China's approval for whatever they might want to do."
The turnaround in Sino-U.S. relations has been stunning. Jiang was warmly received at the White House in October 1997, and Clinton equally warmly welcomed in Beijing in June 1998, especially when he came close to accepting the Chinese claim to Taiwan, the island that China considers a breakaway province.
Today, the issues confronting the United States and China, besides charges of espionage and the aftermath of the Belgrade bombing, include:
(PI) Allegations that Chinese intelligence officers sought to influence the 1996 presidential election with under-the-table financial contributions to the Democratic Party, which have been given new credence by recent congressional testimony of a key courier.
(PI) China's admission to the World Trade Organization, which the United States has blocked by contending that Beijing has not reformed its protectionist trade practices sufficiently. Last year, China imported only $14.3 billion worth of goods from the United States while exporting $71.2 billion worth for a surplus of $56.9 billion.
(PI) Alleged violations of human rights, Clinton having angered Chinese leaders by seeking to have a United Nations commission condemn China's record. The U.S. lost the vote but underscored the administration's criticism of what the Chinese assert is an internal matter.
(PI) U.S. plans to build a regional missile defense, which might include South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. The Chinese have objected vigorously because it would make most of China's missiles obsolete. Prueher, however, has insisted, "We are going to do Theater Missile Defense. We will do it in the Pacific."
(PI) The seemingly intractable question of the future of Taiwan.
Prueher told an audience in Shanghai last year that the U.S. recognizes Taiwan is an issue of sovereignty for China. "It is equally important for the Chinese people," he said, "to recognize that the U.S. will honor its commitment to a peaceful resolution" of the issue.
(PI) Most Favored Nation. In several weeks, Congress will consider whether to renew China's treatment in trade on a par with other nations. That is likely to produce another spasm of criticism of China and responses from Beijing.
All of this is complicated by internal Chinese politics. Chinese leaders appear to be frustrated because they realize they have little to counter the American military, economic and political power that they consider to be an obstacle to their ambitions as the emerging power in Asia.
At the same time, televised images of students throwing rocks at the American embassy were intended to divert Chinese from their nation's economic problems, such as the unemployment of more than 100 million people.
Those pictures were also meant to divert attention from the anniversary of Tiananmen and scandals in the United States arising from allegations of spying, influence peddling and violations of human rights.
Richard Halloran, a former New York Times
Asia correspondent, is a freelance writer
based in Honolulu.
