Jiang to U.S.: Back Off on Taiwan, Tibet

Chinese President Jiang Zemin protested to Vice President Al Gore on Monday that the Clinton administration has been displaying too much support for both Taiwan’s Nationalist government and the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibet, according to U.S. officials.

Last week, the administration dispatched Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson to Taipei for rare high-level talks with Taiwanese officials. Separately, the Dalai Lama was given a warm welcome in Washington, obtaining three separate audiences with President Clinton, Gore and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

During a two-hour meeting with Gore, the Chinese president first brought up the subjects of Taiwan and Tibet and then refused to let go, a U.S. official said. The vice president is filling in for Clinton at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation gathering here because the president stayed in Washington to deal with the Iraq crisis.

“Jiang went off for about 40 minutes on these two subjects,” said one participant. “It was a very lengthy discourse, a monologue on both issues.”

Administration officials depicted China’s protests as relatively mild. Jiang gave “a very calm, measured statement . . . of China’s fundamental views about both Taiwan and Tibet,” said a senior U.S. official. “There was no hot rhetoric.”

Nevertheless, Jiang’s willingness to raise them indicates that Taiwan and Tibet remain at the top of the list of issues that divide the United States and China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao later said the talks between Jiang and Gore were “positive and fruitful.” But he confirmed that the Chinese president had spoken to Gore about the two “major issues” of Taiwan and Tibet.

Over the past few months, the Dalai Lama and his representatives have been seeking some new accommodation with China. In public statements, including a Washington interview with The Times and other publications, the Dalai Lama has emphasized that he does not support independence for Tibet and instead is seeking some form of self-government under Chinese rule.

But China made clear Monday that it does not believe what the Dalai Lama has been saying. “The fact is that the Dalai Lama and his clique never gave up their position on Tibetan independence,” Zhu told a news conference.

U.S. officials said Jiang and his aides told Gore that “they don’t think the Dalai Lama is ready for serious [dialogue]. . . . On our side, [we said] we think he is--try him.”

Over the years, China has frequently raised complaints about Taiwan and Tibet in meetings with top-level American officials. Leaders in Beijing consider Taiwan to be a Chinese province, and they have for decades accused the Dalai Lama of trying to separate Tibet from China, which sent People’s Liberation Army troops into Tibet in 1950.

Of the two issues, Taiwan is much more important to the Chinese regime. Zhu, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that in the talks with Gore, Jiang had stressed that Taiwan is the “crux” of U.S.-Chinese relations.

Richardson was only the third American Cabinet member to visit Taiwan in the nearly 20 years since the United States established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. President Bush sent his trade representative to Taiwan in 1992, and Clinton sent then-Transportation Secretary Federico Pena in 1994.

Beijing’s concerns about American support for Taiwan go well beyond the Richardson visit. One of China’s main priorities in dealing with Washington now is to obtain an assurance that the United States will not establish any missile-defense system in Asia that would protect Taiwan. Such a system might strengthen Taiwan’s hand in negotiations with China.

According to U.S. officials, Gore complained to Jiang about the United States’ growing trade deficit with China, which has been rising steadily and will probably be more than $60 billion this year. Gore said that if the trade imbalance is not reduced, there will be growing sentiment in the United States to protect American industries.

The vice president said he felt that the best way of easing the trade deficit was for China to become a member of the World Trade Organization. Negotiations over China’s membership in the WTO have stalled because Beijing is trying to arrange time periods during which Chinese industries would be protected from foreign competition.

Jiang said China remains “quite interested” in membership in the WTO, which sets the rules for international trade, said a senior U.S. official.