Interview with CBS News, Cox newspapers, and McClatchy newspapers

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, June 29, 1998

I also hope I'll be able to have quite a bit of contact with the citizens of China on this trip in ways that are planned, as we did in the roundtables in Africa, for example, and in ways that are unplanned. I just think that's important. It's important for me and for our whole team to get a feel of life there. I've never had the opportunity to go, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Q. This is your first trip there. You've gotten a lot of advice, solicited and otherwise, on the trip. I'm thinking now about people outside the administration. Who are you listening to, and how are you preparing personally, whether it's something you're reading or otherwise, for the trip?

The President. The truth is, I haven't done as much reading on this trip as I normally do in advance because of all the incredible time-consuming nature of this work in Congress for the tobacco bill and all the financial issues in Asia and all those things we've been doing on it. But I have solicited a significant library. I don't know if I can read all the books, but I've got - Jim Mann was just in here and gave me a copy of his book. Have you seen it? "Beijing Jeep: A Study of Western Business in China."

But I'll get Barry to give you a list of the books; I've asked for six or seven books to read. I'm going to try to begin in earnest over this weekend and then on the trip to do as much as I can, because the reading always helps me. It helps me a lot with what I see and how I do.

And we solicited, also, opinions and advice from a number of China scholars from outside the administration. But I've been with Jiang Zemin enough now that I really have quite a clear idea of what I hope we can achieve and how I want to go about doing it. I've done my best to sort of counter what I think are misconceptions about America - you know, that we had some grand design to contain China, that we didn't really want it to emerge into its rightful position of leadership and prosperity in the 21st century, that we were unmindful of the different historical experiences, that we were unmindful of our own continuing challenges in America. I've tried to knock down all those barriers to honest dialog.

And I've tried to establish enough credibility in being candid and honest over time in the things we've done together - working on the peace in the Korean Peninsula, working to contain proliferation, to working on this latest nuclear testing incident on the Indian subcontinent - to get to the point where I could be frank and open with the President and others with whom I deal. And so I'm going to do my - I'm really looking forward to this, and I'm hoping it will be effective.

Economic Sanctions

Q. Mr. President, I have a sanctions question. Do you agree with Senator Lugar that the United States has essentially become sanction-happy to its own detriment?

The President. Absolutely.

Q. And do you favor his legislation, or something like it, that would roll back in a variety of ways the sunsets - the economic analysis?

The President. Yes. Let me just say, I think sanctions can be helpful from time to time. They're most helpful, clearly, when the world community agrees. I think that the sanctions on South Africa were helpful in bringing an end to apartheid. I think the sanctions on Serbia were helpful in bringing about an agreement in Bosnia. I think the sanctions on Iraq have been helpful in preventing Saddam Hussein from rebuilding the military that could dominate its neighbors and getting back into weapons of mass destruction. So when you've got uniformed sanctions they can be helpful. Sometimes they can be effective even if the United States is doing them, if it covers a situation we can dominate economically. Sometimes they're helpful just as a gesture of disapproval.