Interview with CBS News, Cox newspapers, and McClatchy newspapers

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, June 29, 1998

President's Trip to China

Q. We've been talking among ourselves, so we'll just jump right into it. Just real quickly - one poll question. In a CBS/New York Times poll, some data that we put together shows that 59 percent of the American public believes you should go on this trip. But 35 percent say they - only 35 say they approve of your policy toward China. What do you hope to accomplish on this trip to pull that 35 closer to the 59 or higher?

The President. Well, I think one of the things I hope to accomplish is I hope that as a result of the trip, the American people will learn more about China, and the Chinese people will learn more about America.

And I hope that what my policy actually is will be more broadly known among the American people. You know, I'm not surprised by the 35 percent because normally when there's anything written about China, it's one - something bad happens or some question's raised here. So if you never get any kind of constructive information, it's hard to know. But in specific terms, what I'll hope we'll do is to find a way to expand the areas of cooperation, to continue to discuss in an open way the areas of our differences. And I hope that by going there, I can strengthen the forces of positive change in the country.

So those are my objectives in going, and I think it's a very good thing. I think it's a tribute to the common sense of the American people and the good judgment that they understand, I think, that we have to be involved in China, that we have to try to have a constructive partnership with them.

Q. Mr. President, you've explained why you're going to the Great Hall, and you've said that the Chinese Government needs eventually to apologize to the people for what happened at Tiananmen square 9 years ago. I'm wondering what will be on your heart and on your mind as you motorcade up to the Great Hall and gaze out across that square and ponder the pageantry and trauma that's taken place there over the past century?

The President. Well, obviously, I want to see Tiananmen square, and I will think about what happened there 9 years ago. But I also will be thinking about the last turbulent century in Chinese history and the fact that that whole setting there has been the center of Chinese public life for probably 600 years now. There will be a lot to think about. I'm going to do my best to learn and absorb as much as I can and to increase my capacity to advance our interests and our values while I'm there. And I'm really looking forward to it.

Q. Mr. President, is it realistic that you could have a meeting along the lines of President Reagan - I believe 1988 - a meeting in Moscow with refuseniks in admittedly a period of glasnost. But is it realistic in China? Is that a parallel situation, and are you satisfied that you'll be able to have a kind of contact with dissident and religious groups that you will like?

The President. Well, I'm going to meet with as many diverse people as I possibly can while I'm there. I'm going to try to meet with as many grassroots citizens who are active in all kinds of life as I can. And I'm going to make judgments about that based on what I think is most likely to promote our objectives, which include the advance of human rights and political civil rights, religious rights and, generally, that will promote more openness in China.

You know, I said to President Jiang when he was here - both in the press conference and in our private conversations - that I believe China can never obtain it's own destiny full of greatness without becoming a more open society. Because whether you believe that human rights are universal, as the covenant says and as the U.N. embraces, or whether you believe it's just a cultural preference of some kinds of people, the reality of the world is that we now have an economy which is increasingly dominated by ideas. We basically moved from a farming economy to a manufacturing economy to an idea economy. That's what information technology is.

And it is, therefore, I think almost axiomatic that you can't have an idea-based economy that reaches its fullest success until people are free to think and feel and say and do what they please. And I have tried to argue it to President Jiang that you can have a stable society. In fact, you can have a more stable society when there're outlets for dissent, and where people have avenues within which they can express their ideas, and when you prove that you can incorporate diversity within a society.

I think, for example - I do not see the dialog with the Dalai Lama, for example, as a potential weakening of the coherence of Chinese society. I think it's the biggest opportunity to strengthen China. It's out there because the Dalai Lama's made clear he doesn't want to have an independent Tibet. He wants an autonomous Tibet - if the Chinese say they recognize - but that he recognizes that Tibet is part of China. I think that's an incredible opportunity.

Here we are on the edge of the 21st century. when we see some countries torn apart by religious and racial and ethnic differences. We've now got this great opportunity to harmonize, to reconcile something that has enormous symbolism not simply within Tibet and its sympathizers within China but all over the world.