Copyright 2002 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
February 22, 2002, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A20
LENGTH: 1253 words
HEADLINE: In Place of Chummy Talks, a Reality Check
BYLINE: John Pomfret and Philip P. Pan, Washington Post Foreign Service
DATELINE: BEIJING, Feb. 21
BODY:

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The last time a U.S. president visited Beijing, in June 1998, American newspapers gushed about a "love-in" and a "miracle," saying a remarkably candid joint news conference by Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin signaled a "new chapter in U.S.-China relations."

Today, another U.S. president visited, and his news conference with Jiang was remarkable for different reasons: It revealed that a changed relationship is being fashioned between the world's most powerful country and its most populous one.

Gone was the verbal jousting, the laughter and the polite but urgent interruptions that characterized Clinton's 70-minute appearance with Jiang. Gone, too, was the high-blown sense of possibility about the future of U.S.-Chinese relations. Instead, Presidents Bush and Jiang stated their views in a session marked by awkward pauses and unanswered questions. A love-in this was not.

Behind the sometimes inelegant tone, however, something healthy seemed to be happening, according to Chinese and American analysts. Bush and Jiang barely laughed; they did not hug and they rarely smiled at each other. But the interaction seemed more genuine than the florid news conference held at the same site, the Great Hall of the People, in 1998, the analysts said. "Clinton was a romantic. He was overly enthusiastic," said Shen Dingli, a security expert at Shanghai's Fudan University. "Bush is more realistic." For decades, relations between the United States and China have ebbed and flowed. In the 1940s, U.S. soldiers, sailors and airmen died defending China from the Japanese. By the 1950s, the two countries had battled in Korea and would later battle in Vietnam. By the 1970s, they were cooperating against the Soviet Union. By the mid-'90s, they traded warnings over Taiwan. Only last April, they were engaged in a tense standoff over a U.S. reconnaissance plane that collided with a Chinese fighter jet and made an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan.

While one visit will not necessarily break that pattern, it might add a dose of realism to the relationship.

The Bush administration seems to want to avoid treating China as a special case. Chinese and Western analysts have viewed this as a bit of a breakthrough.

"Clinton's visit absolutely blew expectations way out of proportion," said James Mulvenon, an expert on China's security relationships with other countries at Rand Corp. in Washington. "Before the visit this time, Bush's people had a very different tone. They didn't even talk about deliverables. They said they wanted a normal relationship with China but they won't spackle over disagreements. They will keep the blood pressure steady. It doesn't have to be a circus. This is very deliberate on their part." China, for its part, also kept expectations low and criticism muted. Even the normally anti-American pages of the People's Liberation Army Daily limited comments to an observation that the "30-year history of Sino-U.S. relations testifies that Sino-U.S. relations are one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world."

Perhaps the clearest indication of the new tone was in Bush's handling of the Taiwan question. The president, according to his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, told Jiang he "hoped for peaceful resolution across the straits -- that there should be provocation by no one, and that he intended to live up to the obligations of the Taiwan Relations Act," which authorizes the United States to help Taiwan in its defense.

While not a policy change, that formulation amounted to a less ambiguous statement of U.S. interests than has prevailed in recent years, Western diplomats said.

In 1998, they recalled, Clinton gave a different impression, announcing that the United States opposed independence for Taiwan as well as its quest for international recognition. The Chinese heralded Clinton's language as a sign of U.S. support for China's campaign to unite with the island of 23 million people, about 90 miles from the mainland, and almost immediately increased pressure on Taiwan to engage in talks.

Bush emphasized his commitment to human rights and religious freedom, but it was clear during his visit that his emphasis in China is on strategic interests. "This is something the Chinese understand better," said Shen, the security expert at Fudan University. "We, too, talk about our national strategic interests. We didn't really understand Clinton."

Bush praised Jiang's "constructive leadership" on the Korean Peninsula and thanked China for supporting the U.S. war in Afghanistan. But Bush also did not paper over U.S. differences with China on strategic issues, especially on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. A deal to limit China's exports of such weapons or related technology has yet to be reached.

Behind the scenes, the Bush administration also stood its ground on smaller issues, including arrangements for meals and housing. U.S. officials upset the Chinese, for instance, by refusing to stay at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse, as previous U.S. presidents have done. Instead, Bush stayed at a five-star hotel closer to the U.S. Embassy.

Diplomats also engaged in last-minute wrangling over whether Bush would take questions from students at Qinghua University. The administration touted the session as an opportunity for Bush to engage China's younger generation in dialogue, but the Chinese appeared to be trying to impose controls on the event.

In the joint news conference, Jiang failed to answer questions from American reporters about the arrest of Chinese Catholic bishops and Beijing's policies toward Iraq. Three times, journalists and diplomats tittered nervously as all eyes turned to Jiang, who remained silent under the glare of the television lights in the vast lobby of the Great Hall.

Twice, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman intervened and called on Chinese reporters, who then asked questions that allowed Jiang to read from prepared answers.

As Jiang read, Bush winked at reporters and fought back a grin. But then the American president came to Jiang's rescue, volunteering to speak first after an American reporter politely pressed Jiang. Only at the end of the news conference did Jiang decide to go back and answer the questions posed by U.S. reporters.

"When it comes to meeting the press," Jiang began. Then, he switched into English and said: "President Bush, he has much more experience than I." After some laughter, he added: "I will do my best to answer your question."

Jiang was suddenly more animated. He put down his prepared statements and delivered a rambling defense of China's policies on religion. He volunteered his views on the Korean Peninsula, although he had not been asked, and then returned finally to the question about Iraq, saying the country was not as close to China as North Korea and that "the most important thing is peace should be valued most."

In keeping with the new realism, Jiang and Bush announced that a strategic dialogue will be expanded.

That was taken as an indication that intelligence cooperation, which resumed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, will continue. Jiang also accepted an invitation to travel to the United States in October. But it was unclear whether he will be invited to Bush's Texas ranch. "That would mean we've become your friend," said a Chinese security expert. "Maybe we need to become good partners first."