Remarks in a call-in show on Shanghai Radio 990: June 30, 1998

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 6, 1998

I also want to say a word of appreciation to President Jiang for the very good meeting we had in Beijing and for making it possible for me to reach out to the people of China through televising our press conference together. And then, of course, I went to Beijing University yesterday, "Beida," and spoke with the students there and answered questions. And that was also televised.

And then to be here in Shanghai, one of the very most exciting places in the entire world, to have the chance to begin my visit here with this radio program is very exciting. So I don't want to take any more time. I just want to hear from the questioners and to have a conversation, so that when it's over, perhaps both the American people and the people of China will understand each other better.

Program Host Zuo Anlong. Mr. President, you already can see our TV screen - right in front of you there are so many people waiting in line to talk to you. We're really happy about this. How about we just start right here, okay?

President Clinton. Let's do it.

Asian Financial Crisis

[The first caller asked about the Asian financial crisis and increasing cooperation between China and the United States.]

President Clinton. First of all, Mr. Fong, that is a very good question, and it has occupied a major amount of my time since last year, when we saw the difficulties developing in Indonesia, in the Philippines, in Thailand, in Korea, and of course, in Japan.

I would like to begin by saying I believe that China has done a very good job in holding its currency stable, in trying to be a force of stability during the Southeast Asian crisis. Secondly, we are working together, the U.S. and China, and we are working through the IMF to try to help all these countries stabilize their economies and then restore growth.

But I think the last point I'd like to make is that we cannot see growth restored in Asia unless it is restored in Japan. Now, in Japan the people are about to have an election for the upper house of the Diet, so this is not an easy, time for them. But the Government is going to disclose in the next couple of days what it intends to do in the area of financial reform.

If it is a good proposal and the confidence of the investors of the world is raised, then I believe you will see the situation begin to turn around, and the pressure will be eased in China, and we can see some economic growth come back to Japan and these other countries. It is very important to the United States and very important to China. We're working hard on it.

[Mr. Zuo noted that China has been working hard not to devalue its current, and he asked Mayor Xu Kuangdi of Shanghai about trade between the U.S. and Shanghai. Mayor Xu noted that trade with the U.S. was up 30 percent in the first 5 months of this year, with imports and exports fairly balanced because Shanghai imports a lot of U.S. high-tech products, and he expressed his hopes that this would continue. The next caller, an employee of the Shanghai Library which the President had toured, asked about increasing exchanges between American libraries and the Shanghai Library.]

China-U.S. Library Cooperation

President Clinton. Well, first of all, I think that we need to make sure that all of our major libraries are connected through the Internet, so that we can ship information back and forth over the Internet that is not available in the libraries themselves. For example, if you have total Internet connection with the New York Public Library, which is our largest public library, then there would be things that you have they don't have, but you could send them over the Internet. There would be things that they have that you don't have that could be shared.

So what I will do, since you have asked this question, is, when I get home, I will ask the people who are in charge of our major libraries, the Library of Congress, which is the biggest library in Washington, DC - it's our national library - and the New York Public Library, and perhaps one or two others, to get in touch with the Shanghai Library and see whether we can establish a deeper partnership.

I was very impressed that the Shanghai Library has 300,000 members who actually pay the annual membership fee, 10 yuan. And I think that - we have many people using our libraries, too. I would also like to figure out, if I might, how these big libraries in America and China can better serve the small libraries in the rural areas, where people are so hungry for information and they don t have as much as we do, those of us who live in the bigger areas. So I will work on this.

[Mr. Zuo agreed on the importance of library outreach to rural areas.]

President Clinton. But as you know, you now have the computers with the Internet hookups, and if you have printers there, then people all over China can order articles out of the Shanghai library and just print them out on the computer. So that all you have to have now is a hookup with a printer in the small libraries, in the smallest villages, and anything in the Shanghai Library can be sent to them. Of course, it's more expensive if it's a book. But if it's just an article, it's easy to print out, takes just a couple of minutes.