Chinese Poliburo orders reassessment of Relations

Henry C.K. Liu hliu at mindspring.com
Sun May 9 20:40:27 PDT 1999


Monday May 10 1999

Urgent US action needed to soothe Beijing and prevent collapse of ties

WILLY WO-LAP LAM

Sino-US ties could take a leap backwards

if Washington does not take substantial

action to mollify Beijing.

Senior cadres, including Politburo

Standing Committee members, who met

in emergency sessions on Saturday and

yesterday, have ordered an overall

assessment of relations.

A Beijing source said the "minimum

requirements" set forth by relatively

moderate cadres was that the US and

Nato authorities issue a full apology, pay

adequate compensation and allow China

a bigger role in the resolution of the

Balkans conflict.

However, the hawks, including PLA

generals, were pushing for more pressure

to be applied to the US - and overall

scaling down of relations - unless Nato

agreed to halt hostilities against

Yugoslavia.

The hardliners, one of whose leaders

was PLA Vice-Chief of Staff General

Xiong Guangkai, have held meetings in

which they insisted the embassy strike

was a pre-meditated attempt to trample

on Chinese sovereignty.

Pointing to Beijing's line that it reserved

the right to take "further action", the

generals indicated they would do their

best if that "action" contained a military

component.

The source said that while

Vice-President Hu Jintao had yesterday

warned against anti-US protests

deteriorating into lawlessness,

government-organised protests would

continue at least through this week.

In an effort at social mobilisation not

seen since the first months after the

Tiananmen Square crackdown, Beijing

has asked most official units and social

and "mass" organisations to hold

meetings to voice support for its tough

line on Kosovo.

One reason why the hardliners have the

upper hand is that drumming up

patriotism is seen by Beijing as a means

to divert attention from social problems,

such as unemployment.

The source said that if the Sino-US

quarrel over Kosovo remained

unresolved, a broad array of ties would

be affected. These included the talks on

China's accession to the World Trade

Organisation (WTO).

Members of the pro-WTO and pro-US

faction of the leadership were quick to

pre-empt criticism from hardliners that

they had "sold out" to US interests.

Foreign Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng,

already faulted for yielding too many

trade concessions to the US, was among

the first ministers to call a meeting of his

staff to denounce "US hegemonism and

power politics".

It is expected that Mr Shi and his boss,

Premier Zhu Rongji, will reverse some of

the concessions they granted to US trade

negotiators over the objections of many

ministries and regional administrations.

Isolated attacks on US businesses in

Guangzhou and other cities yesterday

showed anti-Americanism could affect

business.

Foreign diplomats said that even if

Washington and Nato were to meet some

of Beijing's demands, a pall would still be

cast over relations.

"Many cadres think Kosovo heralds a

new wave of 'neo-imperialism' which will

cut into Chinese interests sooner or

later," a Western diplomat said. "Beijing

cannot live with Nato's ideal that

humanitarianism is above national

boundaries."

A Beijing University expert said last night

Nato had become a "military machine"

that might one day use Tibet or Taiwan

to interfere in Chinese affairs.



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