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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Timothy Liu who wrote (8549)	5/16/1999 4:11:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Former President Carter Criticizes U.S. China Policy 12:19 p.m. May 16, 1999 Eastern WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter criticized the Clinton administration's China policy in an interview published Sunday, saying it was inconsistent and difficult for officials in both China and the United States to understand. But Carter said in remarks published in Newsweek magazine that even a clearer U.S. policy might not have prevented the violent protests that followed the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. ''Much of the anger was genuine because the embassy was bombed, and much of the student demonstration was self-initiated,'' Carter said. ''But there's also no doubt that the Chinese government did not want to discourage this chance to demonstrate their condemnation of NATO bombing Kosovo.'' Carter, who has remained active in world affairs through his Atlanta-based Carter Center for peace, democracy and human rights, said he was concerned about China's reaction to the embassy bombing. The United States has said the embassy bombing May 7 was an accident due to an intelligence failure. Three Chinese journalists were killed in the bombing, which triggered angry protests and stone-throwing that badly damaged the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Carter told Newsweek that U.S. policy toward China had become confused under President Clinton's administration. ''I don't think there is any consistency now,'' he said. ''(Our policy) has been up and down. It's been equivocal.'' ''It is hard for the Chinese to understand, hard for Americans and for Congress to understand,'' he added. ''What the Chinese want most is consistency. They don't mind a hard and tough policy toward human rights or trade. But they need to have a comprehension that American policy is consistent and predictable.'' Carter said Beijing had made clear that China opposed the Kosovo bombing, in part it felt left out of the decision-making process. He said the Chinese also were concerned that NATO was interfering in Yugoslavia's internal affairs to defend the human rights of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. ''I think the Chinese feel this might be extrapolated some time in the future to what they consider to be interference in their internal affairs -- the human rights of Tibetans or Taiwanese,'' he said. ''So for us to bomb the Chinese Embassy was a terribly tragic mistake.'' Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.