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Real rhetoric on rights across street

 
Published Oct. 31, 1997|Updated Oct. 2, 2005

For a man who has built a career on compassion, receiving the head of the cruel country of Tiananmen Square is, on the face of it, a tricky business, made more so by Chinese President Jiang Zemin's insistence that the massacre was "much ado about nothing."

In his welcoming remarks, President Clinton sought refuge in the past _ when Chinese immigrants helped build San Francisco _ and in the future _ when China and the United States will live happily in a pollution-free world, where "people will be treated with dignity and will enjoy freedom of speech and religion."

As for President Jiang, whom spinners on both sides portrayed as only slightly less appealing than a panda bear, he talked in his deep voice about peace and progress. At their joint news conference, both presidents discussed the delicate topic of human rights in their various ways. Clinton said the United States and China have "fundamental differences," and Jiang offered the dubious comfort of geography: The vast distance between the two countries might explain the discrepancy in our views.

President Jiang beamed throughout the joint appearance, his parchment-colored oblong face, with the huge black-rimmed glasses, was wreathed in smiles. Unlike President Clinton, he knew the reporters from his side would ask no difficult or rude questions. Clinton finally said what would have given his welcoming remarks on the White House lawn a little spine. He said that China should subscribe to the universal declaration of human rights. That way, of course, they would not be losing face, since it could be interpreted as a bow to the world, rather than just to Uncle Sam.

In the sunshine of the morning, the sound of Yankee Doodle was particularly poignant. In Beijing, Yankee Doodle would be thrown in jail, probably beaten and left to rot.

Wei Jinsheng, a brilliant advocate of democracy who was jailed for 14 years, was rejailed for meeting with our human rights representative, John Shattuck.

A trip across the street to Lafayette Square at noon would have been instructive to both leaders. There was nothing tentative or defensive about the speeches there. Jiang would have tasted the pungent rhetoric of the human rights community and seen the broad range of agreement about disparate groups. He would have seen Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation, who may be the first Cabinet wife in history to take part in a public gathering in protest of presidential policy.

Jiang would perhaps be unable to comprehend such sloppy management. He informed Clinton at the start of his trip that he would hold him responsible for any demonstrations. If Clinton came to China, he would encounter no such cheek.

Jiang would have seen labor leader John Sweeney and conservative agitator Gary Bauer sharing a stage to blast and damn slave labor and abortion policies in Beijing. He would have seen actor Richard Gere, who has added to Clinton's woes by starring in a movie called Red Corner, a dramatic indictment of China's annexation of Tibet. Gere told reporters afterward that he was "ashamed" of having campaigned for Clinton.

Jiang would have learned that the Dalai Lama was the emotional heart of the demonstration. Amid the plastic-foam replicas of Tiananmen Square's Goddess of Liberty, Jiang could say all he liked that it's nobody's business how China treats its people. Lafayette Square said resoundingly that it is.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the warrior queen of human rights in the House, was the wrap-up speaker and shredded Clinton's official reasons for rapport. She spoke witheringly of "rolling out the red carpet for the people who rolled the tanks against the young people in the square." She scoffed at the notion that China would be softened and mellowed by better relations with us.

Clinton would have learned in the park that he had not even begun to convince critics, mostly from his own party, that there was a good reason for the 21-gun salute he gave to Jiang. He made one statement in which he never said that China was bad, just warned that it would be worse if we aren't nice to them. It wasn't enough.

Universal Press Syndicate