U.S. - CHINA RELATIONS

"I think we have to see our relations with China within the broader context of our policies in the Asian Pacific region. I am determined to see that we maintain an active role in this region...I believe this is in the strategic, economic and political interests of both the United States and China...I am persuaded that the best path for advancing freedom in China is for the United States to intensify and broaden its engagement with that nation."

President Clinton
Press Conference
May 26, 1994

President Clinton knows that managing China’s emergence as a global power is one of the greatest challenges of American foreign policy. The President is meeting that challenge through a comprehensive policy of engagement that promotes all of America’s interests, whether it is deterring the proliferation of dangerous weapons, opening China’s markets to U.S. exports or speaking out for human rights. His vision is clear: U.S. interests are best served by a stable, open and prosperous China - but also by a China that increasingly embraces international proliferation and trade rules, cooperates in regional and global peacekeeping and security initiatives and expands the rule of law and respect for the basic rights of the Chinese people. The President has acted decisively when necessary, as he did in recently sending Navy ships to the Taiwan Strait or in threatening trade sanctions necessary to secure the elimination of Chinese trade barriers. But he has also secured Chinese cooperation on historic initiatives, such as North Korea’s 1994 agreement to freeze, and eventually eliminate, its nuclear program. This is a record of results that serves the interests of the United States, the Asia-Pacific region and the world.

A RECORD OF ACTION AND ACCOMPLISHMENT:

The Clinton Administration’s record of results covers a broad range of U.S. national interests:

Security and Nonproliferation

• Quickly and decisively dispatched Navy ships to the Taiwan Strait to counter Chinese efforts to influence Taiwan’s domestic elections through provocative military exercises. At the same time, affirmed the three communiqués and the support of the American public for a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan question. The President’s handling of the tensions reassured Asia and the world.

• Included China in efforts leading to the historic four-party peace proposal announced by Presidents Clinton and Kim in April 1996. For the first time in decades, this proposal offers the prospect of a stable, permanent peace on the Korean peninsula.

• Secured China’s support for North Korea’s 1994 agreement to freeze, and eventually dismantle, North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

• Obtained Chinese support for stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction and are pressing Beijing to conclude promptly a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would ban all nuclear testing.

• Have maintained the one China policy which allows us to pursue our interests with China while keeping our strong, but unofficial ties between Americans and the people of Taiwan.

• In 1995 alone, U.S. exports to China increased by nearly 27%. At $12 billion, these exports were more than double their 1990 level.

• Concluded in 1995 an unprecedented intellectual property rights agreement, in which China agreed to shut down factories producing pirated CD’s and CD-ROM’s, to seize pirated products aimed for export to Asia Pacific markets and North America, and to increase raids on pirate manufacturers and distributors. Secured improved market access for the motion picture, computer software and sound recording industries by negotiating tariff reductions and elimination of quotas and obtaining authority for American firms to enter into joint venture arrangements with local Chinese artists. Administration has made enforcement of the agreement a top priority and is now engaged in intense negotiations over enforcement. Administration has warned that it will take stiff action if enforcement is not forthcoming.

• Secured a tough 1995 textile and apparel agreement with China establishing orderly conditions for textile and apparel imports. Achieved only after U.S. threatened to impose $1 billion in sanctions.

• Enforced agreement eliminating Chinese trade barriers covering products in thousands of sectors.. Also secured Chinese agreement to publish trade laws and regulations in accordance with normal international standards. U.S. exports of electric machinery - such items as telecommunications equipment, semiconductors and photocopiers - were in 1995 more than 40% higher than just two years earlier. U.S. sales of telecommunications equipment reached nearly $3 billion since the agreement was concluded.

• U.S. is leading effort in international coalition to insist that China make sufficient trade barrier reductions to merit entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

• Eliminated unscientific sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to U.S. exports of agricultural products, such as wheat, fruits and livestock; U.S. wheat exports reached an all-time high in 1995.

• Pursued our human rights interests bilaterally and in the UN Human Rights Commission, including co-sponsorship of resolutions at the UNHRC. Effort helped keep international spotlight on human rights abuses in China.

• Issued principles for the conduct of American businesses globally, including in China.

• Vigorously enforced the memorandum of understanding on prison labor products leading to seizures of Chinese exports to the United States.

• Consistently pressed for the release of political dissidents and the expansion of universally recognized human rights.

• Vice President Gore launched a sustainable development initiative to promote Chinese understanding of the environmental consequences of economic development and encourage Chinese use of American environmental and energy technologies.

• China is the United States fifth largest trading partner; U.S. exports grew about 25% last year to about $12.0 billion. China is the fastest growing export market for American goods and services.

• U.S. exports to China support more than 170,000 American jobs.

• The share of Chinese GDP accounted for by state-owned enterprises fell from 74.4 percent in 1982 to 43.1 percent in 1993; China is moving toward a freer market system where key economic actors are privately owned.

• China has played a constructive role in securing APEC’s commitment to achieve free trade and investment in the Asia Pacific region by 2020.

• China has cooperated in efforts to secure a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, as well as the four-party peace proposal of Presidents Clinton and Kim.

• China has joined most of the major international nonproliferation conventions.

• China is working with us to combat global threats such as damage to the environment, narcotics trafficking and alien smuggling.

The Clinton Administration will continue its comprehensive engagement with China on a broad range of political, security and economic issues. We are firm in our purpose -- to integrate China into the world community--and clear in our objective--the U.S. will pursue it core interests with China is support of sustaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia Pacific. We will work with China to:

• Integrate China into the global and regional security institutions and dialogues.

• Continue support for the longstanding one China policy, which allows U.S. to maintain its strong but unofficial ties with the people of Taiwan, while pursuing America’s interests with Beijing.

• Enforce our trade agreements and expand market access for American products.

• Bring China into the rules-based multilateral trading system on terms that ensure Chinese trade policy meets international standards of commercial behavior.

• Enforce U.S proliferation statutes and ensure China’s actions match international standards aimed at eliminating the use of weapons of mass destruction.

• Encourage the expansion of the rule of law in business and society, including intensifying our dialogue on human rights.