America’s Marco Polo
Never has an American President left for foreign shores among such fireworks of criticism as that which accompanied Clinton before, during, and after his recent visit to China. He was unspared by all sources from the Congress to the press, as well as from civil and human rights organizations. Neither Nixon’s meeting with Mao in 1972, nor Ford’s meeting with him in 1975, or even Reagan’s with Deng Xiao Ping in 1984, were marked by the wave of contention that Clinton’s visit to China has provoked.
A number of domestic and European commentators, however, have demonstrated a more sober if less clamorous judgment toward the President’s visit to the most populous continent in the world during the most explosive economic crisis of this fin de siècle. La Stampa’s editorialist, Enzo Bettiza, called Clinton America’s Marco Polo, while speculating that his nine-day trip of encounters and negotiations had the potential of either widening or narrowing the gap represented by the Pacific. Former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, who is usually hardly approving of Clinton’s foreign policy, claimed that in the case of China, Clinton deserved the country’s unanimous support. He criticized the transverse alliance between right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats in their chorus of disapproval of Clinton’s visit, lamenting that if too many Republicans are mistakenly substituting the USSR with China, just as many Democrats are acting as if our purpose were to reproduce our institutions and principals in China.
With the economies of the Asian tigers in turmoil, the Japanese yen in the midst of a full-fledged freefall, Indonesia engulfed by a Pandemonium of misery and bloodshed, and with India and Pakistan conducting a mortal contest of atomic supremacy, it was of no small merit for Clinton to seize the moment of opportunity to renew diplomatic relations with a China that is demonstrating an enormous and reassuring amount of political stability in a region plagued by disaster.
In an interview with Salon Magazine, James Lilley, former ambassador to China, Korea, and Taiwan and presently head of the China studies program at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington states that although human rights may be an important issue and very basic to American values, we must never lose sight of who we are dealing with. He illustrates how hype in the media makes Americans overly concerned about human rights issues in one country while ignoring them in another. We have yet to sanction the Saudis, notwithstanding the fact that they beheaded 600 people last year, nor the Russians for what went on in Chechnya, nor the Indonisians for the massacres in East Timor.
According to Lilley it is counterproductive to link issues of human rights to China’s status as a most favored nation in trade. Although he feels that we need to seek out their vulnerabilities, whether it is access to World Bank loans or membership in the World Trade Organization, he encourages a more parallel approach to diplomacy rather than a "quid pro quo" technique which often allows the Chinese to call our bluff and for us to lose credibility when we inevitably back down.
Americans too quickly forget just how far China has come since the death of Mao. It is only by encouraging China’s continual integration into the international community, that even greater progress will occur. China adhered to the treaty for non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and agreed to the convention banning testing of biological and chemical weapons. It shares America’s objective in maintaining stability on the Korean peninsula. It kept its promise by not crushing political demonstrations in Hong Kong. In the midst of the Asian economic crisis it has resisted the pressure for the devaluation of its currency. That’s quite a list of only recent accomplishments and one that is hardly exhaustive. Instead of looking at the long road to be traveled by the Chinese in order to meet American standards and expectations, Americans need to formulate a better appreciation of the path of progress already trodden.
July 1998
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