Interview with Central China Television in Shanghai: July 1, 1998

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 6, 1998

So I think bringing the people into the process of making these decisions and having these discussions I think is very, very important, because if you think about a lot of the problems that we face - we could take American issues; we could take Chinese issues - how are you going to guarantee that all these people who work for state-owned industries get good jobs? How are you going to deal with the housing problems if people no longer have a housing guarantee connected to their job, but there are vacant apartments in Shanghai, but you can't seem to put the two together? How do you solve these problems?

Very often there's not any simple answer. And people feel better just to know that their views are heard, their concerns are heard, and that there can be a discussion where people work together toward the answers. So I think this whole democratic process, in my view, is very, very important to make society work when things are changing as quickly as they are now.

Comparison to President Jiang

Q. Now, Mr. President, you've obviously made very indepth observations of China today. You mentioned a lot of the problems that this society is dealing with today. For instance, state-owned enterprise reforms and so on and so forth. So whose job do you think is tougher, if you have to make a comparison, yours or President Jiang Zemin's?

The President. Oh, I don't know. I think that he faces enormous challenges here at home of a scope that Americans have a hard time imagining. Probably the only element of my job which is more difficult right now is that since the cold war is over and America has this role which is temporary - it won't last forever - as the only superpower in the world, I have a lot of work to do to deal with America's challenges and problems at home and then to try to get the American people to support our Nation doing what we should do as a force for peace and prosperity and stability around the world.

So our people have normally been rather like the Chinese people, you know - we want to attend to our own affairs and not be so involved in the rest of the world unless we just had to be, throughout the last 200 years. But in the last 50 years, we've learned that we can only succeed at home if we have positive relationships around the world - which is the main reason I wanted to come to China.

U.S. Leadership in the World

Q. Now, allow me to follow up on that, Mr. President. You mentioned America is the only superpower left for now in the world. And America's leadership role in the world has often been talked about in domestic politics, if not sometimes in international occasions, too. Now, in your opinion, does the world today need a leader, and, if so, how should the United States assume the responsibility and why?

The President. Well, I think the short answer to your question is, yes, the world needs a leader, but not in the sense of one country telling everyone else what to do. That is, let's take something that didn't happen in Asia.

If you look at the problem, the civil war in Bosnia, the terrible problem in Bosnia, we had the military resources to work with NATO our military allies in Europe, to move in and stop the war. Because we were the largest party to NATO, if we hadn't been willing to take the initiative, it wouldn't have happened. On the other hand, we couldn't have done it alone. We had to have people work with us.