US-China Differences Go Way Beyond Protocol for Hu's Visit

Patrick Goodenough

China's embassy in Washington, official media, and -- more than once this week -- the foreign ministry in Beijing all have referred to the April 18-21 trip as a "state visit."

But the White House pointedly described it as merely "a visit" and the agenda does not include the official state dinner or banquet traditionally associated with the highest-level visit by a head of state.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan sought to play down the issue, saying late last month "my understanding is that when President Hu travels to a foreign country, that the Chinese refer to that as a state visit."

The finer points of protocol may be a non-issue to some, but the Chinese government takes them seriously when its leaders travel abroad.

Wenran Jiang, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, Canada, says getting the full state-visit treatment "is important for Hu politically back home, and for the international image of this ascending economic power abroad."

Writing in BusinessWeek, Jiang attributed the U.S. decision to the administration not wanting to be seen "to be courting top Chinese while there is strong anti-Chinese sentiment on Capitol Hill and some fear of a rising China among ordinary Americans."

But the move will be seen as "a slap in Hu's face," Jiang said.

"It suggests that Washington doesn't fundamentally acknowledge the legitimacy of China's authoritarian communist government."

Abuses

According to the White House, President Bush has hosted only five official visits, for the leaders of Mexico, Poland, the Philippines, Kenya and most recently, India.

President Clinton took flak when he hosted a state visit for Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, in 1997. It was the first by a Chinese leader since before the 1989 crushing of pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square, and congressmen from both parties questioned why Clinton was rolling out the red carpet for the head of a repressive regime.

Nine years later, China's human rights record is just one of numerous sensitive issues between the U.S. and China, but it's one that hangs heavily over Hu's visit.

"For years we've been hearing [from China's leadership] 'first economic reform, then political reform,'" Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch said this week. "President Bush must insist that the time for reform is now, before the list of abuses gets even longer."

One specific case that has energized lawmakers is that of pro-democracy activist Yang Jianli, a U.S. permanent resident jailed since 2002 after entering China using a friend's passport.

More than 100 lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, have urged Bush to press the matter with Hu. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have both raised the case in the past but Yang remains in prison, having served four years of a five-year term.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday human rights would be "an important item on the agenda," and that issues like freedom of religion and expression were raised with China "on every occasion that we have."

Earlier this week, McCormack's Chinese counterpart, Liu Jianchao, was asked whether human rights would feature during Hu's visit and replied that the two governments "have conducted many rounds of human rights consultation."

"China has always stood for dialogue among nations on the basis of equality, mutual respect and interaction," he said.

The human rights issue is a sore point in bilateral relations. The State Department each year assesses the state of human rights around the globe, and China consistently scores badly.

In what has become an annual ritual, Beijing responds to the report's publication each year by releasing one of its own, but focusing exclusively on the U.S.

In its most recent edition, China's State Council said the aim of the Chinese report was to show the "true features of this self-styled 'guardian of human rights.' "

The report depicts the U.S. as a violent country where political influence can be bought, women's rights are restricted, racism abounds and the military violates human rights abroad and "deliberately" targets civilians.

Mutual wariness

Relations between the U.S. and the rising Asian giant are marked by deepening trade ties but wariness about each other's foreign policies and ambitions.

China frequently refers to the need to counter superpower "hegemony" and is known to be leery of what it sees as "encirclement," a reference to growing American influence in Central Asia and India, and ever-deepening U.S.-Japanese security ties.

On the other hand, U.S. officials from Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld down have voiced concerns about China's military buildup and what they say is a lack of transparency in defense spending.

"Since no nation threatens China, one wonders: Why this growing investment?" Rumsfeld asked at a security conference in Southeast Asia a year ago. "Why these continuing large and expanding arms purchases?"

China's policies abroad also are closely watched.

Eager to expand sources of energy supplies to feed its galloping economy, Beijing is pursuing ever closer ties with countries in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, some of which - such as Sudan and Venezuela - have problematic relations with the U.S.

(Two of the four countries Hu will visit after the U.S. leg of this trip, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, respectively, are the world's largest and eighth largest oil exporters.)

China experts say Beijing's goals are not just energy-related. Improving ties with developing countries also expands China's influence and secures it more allies in international forums - including the U.N., where countries with poor records routinely support each other.

In the process, they say, China is undermining democratization and helping to prop up offensive regimes, in some cases also selling weapons that may be used for internal repression. China, often acting in concert with Russia, has used its position as a veto-wielding member of the Security Council to block or water down measures aimed at countries like Iran and Sudan.

"Chinese policies are endangering U.S. goals by supporting African dictatorships, hindering economic development, and exacerbating conflicts and human rights abuses in troubled countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe," Heritage Foundation scholar Peter Brookes writes in the Apr. 17 edition of Weekly Standard.

Other significant disputes between Washington and Beijing relate to Chinese market barriers, alleged currency manipulation, a U.S. deficit with China that last year hit a record $202 billion, and intellectual property rights piracy.

Taiwan remains a persistent irritant, and China will be pressing for strong statements from Bush repudiating any steps by the island's government that may thwart eventual unification with the mainland.

Despite the many areas of disagreement and potential friction, Chinese scholar Tao Wenzhao argued in a commentary published in Beijing Friday that relations were becoming increasingly pragmatic.

"As the two countries learn more and more about each other, neither is harboring unrealistic expectations for, or views about, the other any more," said Tao, a researcher at the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

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Source: "CNSNews.com".