WTO Its Done>
Wednesday September 8, 12:48 am Eastern Time
FOCUS-Jiang conciliatory ahead of U.S. summit
By Andrew Browne
CANBERRA, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Declaring U.S. President Bill Clinton ''my old friend'' and
saying he was reluctant to mention the embassy bombing, Chinese President Jiang Zemin on
Wednesday struck a conciliatory note ahead of a China-U.S. summit.
It was the clearest indication yet that China is ready to move beyond the U.S. bombing of its
embassy in Belgrade in May and improve ties with Washington, now at their lowest point
since diplomatic contacts were established in 1971.
Jiang indicated the bombing was no longer an obstacle to concluding an agreement with the United States on Beijing's bid to
join the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
But he insisted the U.S. Congress was to blame for blocking a WTO deal, and made clear the ball was now in the U.S. court.
''I'm really reluctant to mention what happened on the 8th of May this year,'' Jiang during a state visit to Australia after meeting
Prime Minister John Howard.
''The bombing of our embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia killed three of our people and later President Clinton
expressed his regret on behalf of the United States,'' he said, without commenting further on the attack.
In addition to Clinton's apology, the U.S. has agreed to pay $4.5 million in compensation to families of the three victims. Still
unresolved is the issue of U.S. compensation for damage to the embassy, and Chinese compensation for damage to the U.S.
mission in Beijing during anti-U.S. protests.
On Taiwan, the biggest potential flash-point in China-U.S. relations, Jiang repeated Beijing's complaint that while Washington
proclaimed its commitment to a ''One China'' policy it continued to sell arms to the island.
''So the Chinese people find it really hard to understand,'' he said.
Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui has infuriated Beijing by proclaiming the island will only deal with China on a ''special
state-to-state basis.'' China views Taiwan as a renegade province.
Jiang again refused to rule out force against Taiwan, rebuffing Howard who said that during his meeting with Jiang he had
''encouraged all involved to resolve differences without a resort to any military force.''
Jiang said the WTO would feature in his summit with Clinton next week in New Zealand on the fringes of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum in Auckland.
But he appeared to rule out any agreement during the summit itself, saying that ''as for the specifics, I think that will be for our
officials to discuss.''
Jiang contrasted the Australian and U.S. approaches to China's WTO accession.
''While Prime Minister Howard is my old friend, China and Australia have already concluded bilateral negotiations on China's
accession to the WTO,'' Jiang said.
''President Clinton is also my old friend,'' he said. But he added that since the U.S. Congress was so powerful ''the prospect
of the WTO question will be to a large extent dependent on the American side.''
On Monday U.S. and Chinese officials began meetings in Beijing to review progress made so far in marathon negotiations
which have spanned 13 years.
Jiang said Congress had stood in the way of WTO discussions during his visit to the United States in 1997 and a return visit to
China last year by Clinton.
''And this year I think the American side missed another good opportunity and that's when Premier Zhu Rongji visited the
United States. At that time the agreement could have been reached but again due to reasons from Congress, that's from the
American side, the agreement has not been reached,'' he said.
Zhu was sent home from Washington empty-handed after offering trade concessions that went well beyond all previous offers.
Clinton's rejection of the offer humiliated Zhu and gave valuable time to protectionist opponents of WTO membership in China
to rally their forces.
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