Clinton did leave us with a couple of good things: NAFTA for one, much improved relations with China for another.
Gee, I thought the China visits by Nixon, Reagan and GB were what opened up China and improved our relations.
Clinton did spend 10 days in China...and he certainly did a lot for China, but I have no idea what he accomplished for America.
James Baker's visit to China in 1991 did more to improve relations with China (after Tiananmen Square) than any presidential visits.
Here is part of the real story of the Clinton efforts on behalf of China.
November 1993: After a major China policy review within the U.S. administration in September, culminating in significant liberalization of controls on the export of supercomputers and other sensitive dual-use technology, President Clinton and Party Secretary Jiang Zemin meet at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and military exchanges, suspended after the 1989 crackdown, resume with a visit to China by Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Freeman.
February 1994: Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck goes to Beijing and infuriates Chinese officials by meeting with Wei Jingsheng, who later is arrested. The Chinese governmetn breaks off an almost non-existent "human rights dialogue" as a result.
March 1994: Secretary of State Warren Christopher has disastrous trip to Beijing where he is publicly humiliated by the Chinese government on human rights issues.
May 26, 1994: President Clinton de-links human rights and MFN, saying while China had not made significant progress on many of the issues outlined in his 1993 Executive Order, a tough human rights policy was hampering the ability of the U.S. to pursue other interests. He bans $200 million worth of annual imports of Chinese munitions, and announces a "vigorous" new human rights policy, including an effort to get U.S. businesses in China to adhere to a voluntary set of principles for protecting human rights, increased support of broadcasting to China, undefined expanded mulitlateral efforts on human rights and support for nongovernmental organizations in China -- despite the fact that none existed at the time.
May 1995:White House announces voluntary code of conduct for businesses as promised in the 1994 decision to de-link MFN but the code proves to be generic, not aimed at companies operating in China.
June 1997: Vice-President Al Gore visits China, signing $685 million worth of contracts for the Boeing Corporation with Premier Li Peng while saying nothing about human rights and byapssing Hong Kong just months before the July 1 handover to China.
October 1997: President Jiang Zemin visits Washington in a triumphal summit that took place without human rights preconditions
March 1998: For the first year since 1990, the U.S. fails to sponsor a resolution critical of China's human rights practices at the annual meeting of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
As for NAFTA, many think the jury is still out. Yet Ross Perot's prediction that, with NAFTA, the giant sucking sound you will hear will be the export of American jobs has certainly materialized.
NAFTA is working well. Real well. The problem is it is working for everyone else. It is not working for Americans.
We have international corporations, like Toyota, Gap and K-Mart go to Mexico to set up plants that employ workers for pennies on the dollar. Then they come to America and set up corporate chain stores where workers don't make enough to pay apartment rent. Here with the help of government (NAFTA) preference, they cause our small businesess, our national backbone, to fail.
I am for the principles of free trade that NAFTA proposes.
But it will only work equitably on a level playing field and we do not have that. Clinton thought that the world's living standard would increase and our's would get better too. In fact what is happening now is the standard of living is in decline for tens of millions of Americans and an increasing number of states are in serious financial trouble.
NAFTA provided some controls..i.e., worker safety checks. Clinton signed the bill and over the next 7 years never set up an org to provide control.
In early 1991, NAFTA experts meeting in Wash DC, openly acknowledged that the ultimate goal is the political integration of the Western Hemisphere similar to that of the European Union. Americans are already suffering badly from NAFTA, unfortunately there's lots more ahead.
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