Fri, Feb 22, 2002 page12

• Editorial: Bush better than Bill in Beijing

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  After US President George W. Bush's press conference with Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) we might be tempted to breathe a sigh of relief. Nothing seems to have been given away. But, of course, we remember former US president Bill Clinton, who waltzed through the press conference he held with Jiang in 1997 without making any mistakes -- only to give away the farm.

  Clinton's mistake was to tell students at Shanghai University that the US "embraced" a "one China" policy 20 years ago. It was a mistake because, of course, it didn't. What it did do was to acknowledge that for China the "one China" position was its basic stance. It nowhere said that it agreed with that stance or would adopt it itself. Clinton swung US policy behind Beijing's view of cross-strait relations, partly because he thought that achieving some kind of rapprochement with China was just about the only thing his disastrous presidency -- at least as far as foreign policy went -- could achieve.

  But that was then, and here we are with George W., a very different kind of president. Much was being made yesterday of the fact that Bush seemed to have a far more moderate tone than this time last year, when he approved the biggest arms sales to Taiwan since the end of his father's presidency in 1992. China's friends in US think tanks will no doubt spin the line that this reflects Bush's strengthening grasp on the realities of the cross-strait relationship -- which is really a coded way of saying that Bush is slowly realizing that respect for Taiwan, what it has achieved and what it stands for, cannot be allowed to get in the way of the "great power" relationship the US must naturally forge with China.

  This is not an argument that impresses us. Bush started off his presidency with some strong words -- and actions -- designed to let China know there was a new administration to deal with that was not prepared to kowtow in the manner of its predecessor. He has no need to reiterate this. Having chosen the ground, Bush is now interested to see what China will bring to the picnic. Time will tell. The fact is that nothing can be achieved by the US president in cross-strait relations, except to deter Chinese aggression. He cannot make the people of Taiwan look with anything less than loathing at the Beijing regime, and he surely realizes that Beijing will not come up with anything new in Taiwan policy until the new post-16th Party Congress leadership feels comfortable in office.

  Actually, Taiwan was not a major issue on Bush's agenda with China. Far more important was the subject of China's continued arms trade with rogue regimes, especially the help it has given Pakistan and Iran to build weapons of mass destruction. No deal was struck nor, officials said yesterday, would one even be drafted ahead of Bush's return to Washing-ton. Taiwan of course faces a threat from the 300 or so missiles based in Southeast China, which threaten its cities and military strongpoints. But the irony is that it is the weapons and weapons-building technology that China supplies to other nations that might be a bigger threat, at least if China were to offer a deal on proliferation in return for an agreement about arms sales to Taiwan. Not that we think the current US president would be tempted by such a deal. But it is certainly as well that the Taiwan Relations Act is a part of US law.
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