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China Wants Jiang Visit to Go Smoot
- Subject: China Wants Jiang Visit to Go Smoot
- From: BurmaJapan@xxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 22:17:00
How much harrassment can our combined groups do?? Make the
demonstrations as public as possible. Advertise it. I have email and
mail lists for newspapers, etc. through-out the world. Go to the
National Press Building in the Northwest section of Washigton,D.C.
China Wants Jiang Visit to Go Smoothly
05:11 p.m Oct 22, 1997 Eastern
By David Storey
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China expects
the United States to prevent protesters from disrupting
next week's visit by President Jiang
Zemin and to guarantee an ``amiable atmosphere,'' an
embassy spokesman said Wednesday.
Opponents and critics of the communist
Chinese government, including Chinese dissidents now in
the United States, plan demonstrations
in Washington, New York and other stops during Jiang's
Oct. 26 to Nov. 2 tour.
``We should have the whole atmosphere
guaranteed by the host country so that the visit should not
be disrupted,'' Press Counsellor Yu
Shuning told reporters. ``To have the visit go off smoothly we
should have an amiable atmosphere.''
``We are guests of the American
government so we hope (it) will do a good job so these so-called
dissidents do not realize the aim of
disrupting the visit of President Jiang and disrupting the
development of Sino-U.S. relations,''
Yu said.
He was speaking at a news conference to
discuss the visit, which includes a summit with President
Clinton next Wednesday as well as
visits to Honolulu, Williamsburg, Va., Philadelphia, New York,
Boston and Los Angeles.
State Department spokesman James Rubin
responded by saying free speech was a founding
principle of the United States although
any demonstrators would have to respect the law.
``America is a democracy and we are not
seeking to infringe in any way on the rights of Americans
to have their voice be heard in any way
that is permitted by a local jurisdiction,'' Rubin told a regular
State Department news conference later.
``I'm not going to get into the details
of how that would be done in each particular site,'' he said.
``The fact that the Chinese president
is here does not change that principle on which this nation
was based.''
Apart from exiled dissidents, who
demand an overhaul of China's political system and greater
respect for individual rights to
accompany economic reforms, other protest groups have pledged to
make their voices heard.
Many Americans are still outraged by
the bloody military crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989
to snuff out the pro-democracy
movement, which plunged official relations into a trough from which
they are just now recovering.
Yu said the Tiananmen events would not
be brought up at the summit, and repeated Beijing's
defense of the crackdown.
``The Chinese government was forced to
take radical measures to maintain order and social
stability so our economic development
would not be disrupted,'' he said.
``Since then China has opened wider to
the outside world and the economy has reached a high
level of growth. It shows our measures
have been effective,'' he said.
Yu said those known as ``Chinese
dissidents'' in the United States were in fact ``bent on subverting
the government.'' He added, ``They have
committed crimes.''
There has been widespread speculation
that some of the more prominent of such detainees might
be freed as a gesture towards U.S.
concerns before or during Jiang's visit.
In its annual review of human rights
around the world in January, the State Department accused
China of silencing dissent against the
communist government, saying it ``continued to commit
widespread, well-documented human
rights abuses.''
Yu said Jiang intended to have
``extensive contacts with the American people'' and the trip was
intended to ``deepen the mutual
understanding and friendship'' between the two states.
As well as 90 minutes of talks
scheduled with Clinton and meetings with officials at his various
stops, Jiang will also meet leaders of
the Senate and the House of Representatives, where there
has been outspoken criticism of Chinese
policies.
His contacts with unofficial America
will be strictly limited. He is due to meet representatives of the
Chinese-American communities in Boston
and New York as well as visit industrial sites in New
York and El Segundo, California.
Yu indicated one issue that could hang
over the summit was the U.S. decision to appoint a
``special co-ordinator'' to oversee
U.S. policy on Tibet, which he said ``constitutes an interference
in our internal affairs.''
Supporters of an independent Tibet and
of the country's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, are
planning to mount demonstrations in
Washington and elsewhere.
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