12-3-97
Highest Authority of Chinese Beijing
Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters?
--Confucius
Mainland China Leader Visits U.S. 12-3-97
Jiang Zemin:
Highest Authority of Chinese Beijing
10-24-97
So wrote Confucius the great sage of China's history and hated icon of Mao Zedong. As Jiang Zemin comes to visit the United States, to take tea and food with the highest officials of the country, we ask is Jiang a friend? If so then his visit may be a delight. If not, the delight can be a revulsion for some. William Clinton, President of the U.S. is definitely trying to consider him a friend or make him a friend. But in terms of this president some people might think that some other words of Confucius should be kept in mind:
Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.
Jiang apparently will be dogged by protests everywhere he goes. Humorously, or sadly really, his underlings in the CCP have made noises that they want the U.S. officials to clamp down on any of these protests. Good ol' Mike McCurry, a presidential spokesman did have the right answer for the Chinese communist worry-warts. He said
Welcome to democracy
In deference to President Clinton we will give him the first words. Take a look here to see the President's comments on Jiang XianSheng's visit and the administrations view of so-called China policy. The text is a write up of Clinton's main point's in his speech of October 24, 1997. I got it from U.S. Information Services East Asia and the Pacific page at their web site.
Jiang ZeMin has made it to U.S. soil. He stayed first in Hawaii and made it to Virginia last night. His visit in Hawaii involved well wishers and protestors. There was a dinner reception for him with the Governor of Hawaii, Benjaman Cayetano and others.
Inside was a pretty sight. Jiang acted the maverick and asked for steak rather than the Hawaiian type meal that was served for everyone else. All seemed smiles and warmth. He shared a toast with the lovely Mrs. Cayetano, first lady of Hawaii.
Beautiful sights. Later Jiang played Aloha on a steel guitar and sang along This would be a great event if it weren't for who Jiang is and what he represents. To remind us of that, outside there were protestors.
According the the news wire reports, Jiang's security team asked the Hawaiian authorities to arrest the demonstrators. The Hawaiians had to explain that they were not doing anything illegal and that they were not dangerous.
As they ate inside and relaxed afterward, the songs and shouts of the protestors could be heard. The Governor talked with Jiang, and in light of the protests Cayetano later told reporters that he and Jiang discussed the demonstrations they'd attended in their college days.
This is where for me things hit home. Jiang Zemin apparently protested in his college days. In fact he was part of a group that not only protested against their government, they actually succeeded in overthrowing it (in a very violent and bloody manner).
This same Jiang Zemin who later becomes the top leader of his country, likes to reminisce about his student days, yet will not allow demonstrations or protests in the country he now heads. Even citizens who are not calling for the overthrow of the government but simply write letters to their own government to urge them to change policy are thrown in jail. And jail in mainland China for political thought crimes is no cup of tea.
It is difficult to have respect for a person and regime like that.
First things first I guess for Jiang Zemin. As much as anything this was a photo-op for him. It gave him a chance to make a big noise with the big boys and to make a good picture back home for the folks to know what a great world class leader they have in good ol' Zemin. In this there must have been the conscious decision to harken back to and try and duplicate the 1979 visit of the late despot Deng Xiaoping.
Deng made quite a splash at that visit by wearing a cowboy hat at a Texas rodeo. Jiang wanted to wear an American hat too. He did.
The problem is no one apparently told Jiang that a cowboy hat is cool whereas an old tricorn like the one he put on just looks silly. There is a reason people still wear cowboy hats but no one wears tricorns like that.
There were also photo-ops for the people who protested on his colonial visit.
After this he made it to Washington where there were more photo-ops and the red carpet treatment.
Clinton did say some things that were worthwhile and something to give him credit for at least saying it. Clinton said in the news conference (with Jiang standing right there next to him):
"But on this issue we believe the policy of the government is on the wrong side of history."Clinton was referring to the Communist Party's attitude toward human or civil rights in general and specifically to the question about the necessity of killing their citizens in the June 89 Beijing massacre (often called the Tiananmen Square massacre).
Clinton also went on to make some good points that the Communist Party should have been able to figure out on their own by now. He said:
"I also believe, as I said in my opening statement, that over the long run the societies of the 21st century that will do best will be those that are drawing their stability from their differences; that out of this whole harmony of different views, there is a coherence of loyalty to the nation because everyone has their say. It enables people to accept, for example, the results of the elections that they don't agree with. "This is quite a reasonable and important thing to say. That the differing political viewpoints and freedom to speak and create will strengthen China, not hurt it. It is to Clinton's credit that he made the statement so clearly. But with Clinton he says a lot of good things but we must remember the great sage's words again: "Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue."
Yes, Jiang made the above statement about the Chinese communist takeover and subsequent and ongoing repression of Tibet. His statement may be what he wants to think but there is a major flaw in this "freeing of the slaves" theory.
Which of these guys portraits are revered by former slaves?
Jefferson Davis was the president of the Confederacy during the US civil war. After his side lost the Civil war and the slaves were freed, none of them put up pictures of Jefferson Davis on the walls of their homes. On the other hand the supposed leader of the slave owners, the Dalai Lama, is revered and respected in Tibet even to the point where despite it being illegal to display his picture, Tibetan families will keep his picture in their homes. This does not sound like the actions of former slaves toward their former master. Jiang's statement does not pass muster with the reality test.
Jiang made a trip to Harvard University to give a speech. He wanted to give a speech to be like Lee Teng Hui , President of the Republic of China (the Chinese republic where they elect their government officials). Lee had given a speech at Cornell University in 1995. That visit by Lee to the US and the speech made Jiang Zemin and the other Chinese communists so angry they began to shoot missiles at Taiwan in 1995 and in 1996. Jiang wanted to best Lee Teng Hui by also giving a speech at a major US university and Harvard was very happy to oblige. This resulted in Dueling Speeches
It also allowed dueling demonstrations. At Harvard a fairly sizable group turned out to show support or welcome for Jiang. They are seen in the picture on the right. Notice how all their flags are uniform. The left picture is another of the demonstrations against Jiang with their hand made signs and all.
The PRC consulate helped get put the word and to organize the welcoming demonstration (nothing wrong with that at all). What is also interesting was that even on the "pro-Jiang" side there were signs advocating freeing Wang Dan, one of the leaders of the democracy movement who is in jail now. This is not surprising and is quite healthy. It is understandable that people will support their country and its' leader even though they may not fully agree with everything he stands for.
Here is some info I received about the visit;
Those of Supporters in Harvard also call for Release of Wang Dan, the student leader jailed by Jiang Zemin's Government.Let me say again, there is nothing wrong with this. It is a free country for all of us.I saw a big poster of "RELEASE WANG DAN" with his picture printed on the banner, when it first appeared among the pro-CCP/Jiang-Zemin mass, an excitement burst out....
There were about 1000 pro-CCP in Harvard, while 3000 protesters.
And
The welcoming are organized from the consulate, I heard this form my mainlander friends. The consulate want students from some top universities like Ivy League to participate , and the response is very good--not supprising.
So what happened after this is Jiang went to California where he met up with protestors in LA. I heard from a mainland Chinese friend here in the US who went to protest Jiang that there were three main groups there, the mainlanders, who were the smallest of the protesting groups, the Taiwan Indeoendenceers and the Free Tibet crowd that was the largest.
Jiang met with Governor Pete Wilson and Mayor Richard Riordan of LA. Wislon did give a little lecture about the importance of freedom but said that they had to talk because business was important. This is constructive engagement in a nutshell. Deal with them but also let them know we don't like all the things they do back home. We will see if this strategy works in the long run.
Compare though Wilson and Riordan with Pataki and Giuliani of New York. Both of them made it a point to not meet with Jiang. Also the Governor of Virginia did not go to the reception for him and sent his wife to make a statement about human rights. And the Congress apparently tried to give him troubling questions as well.
But overall we know this visit was a triumph for this policy called constructive engagement. The Clinton administration released a list of all the accomplishments that were acheived in this summit. You can read it here.
One of the main things trumpeted is the deal whereby the PRC will decrease its' help to Iran in Iran's nuclear energy program and in return the US will allow US companies to sell their nuclear reactor components to the PRC. But this agreement had a big loophole in it. It said that the PRC would not begin any new programs with Iran. But ongoing programs will continue until they are done. This is a hole big enough to drive a truck through. So it is failry empty.
What I think the Clinton administration ought to have done is to simply have stated that they feel that American firms should be able to make money by selling their wares to the PRC. Rather than beat around the bush with this tie-in to Iran they should have just come clean and said we want to make some dough.
One overlooked aspect of this Iran tie-in is that three countries are involved. Not much was said about this but the reports from the Iranian government were not happy. They did not appreciate the Chinese Communists using them as a bargaining chip. They also will play up to the CCP the idea that the US is pushing them around with deals like this. And a most important thing to remember is that the CCP does not want to make Iran angry at them. Currently the biggest real problem in terms of violence facing the CCP is the unrest in their western "autonomous region" of Xinjiang. Tibet gets the ink but this region has seen bombings and fighting and have a dedicated group that are attempting to wage civil war against the CCP.
The group doing this are the Uighers, a non-Han group in China. They are Muslim. I don't think that the CCP want to get on Iran's bad side in that if they do Iran might decide to get ome revenge by helping out the Uighur separatists of Xinjiang with some guns and butter. So this Iran deal is most likely a bunch of smoke.
But like I said, the idea is to make money. This is what this visit and constructive engagement is about. The PRC and their CCP oligarchy now have become seen as a corporation to be dealt with. They control the government and the business. It is indeed a corporate state now. This is why we ought to change the name to better befit them. Change it to:
Or in Chinese pinyin, zhonggong gongsi.
So as the sun sets in the land where the children cry, and don't you know God is a panda bear, he went back to his happy corporation, with more places to go and people to imprison, his work is never done, so we say adios amigo, or rather adios caudillo malo and ...
