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In my last years with ABC News (1997-1999), I filed frequently from
China on political and social issues. |
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15th Party Congress |
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Chinese Communist Party Congresses are usually tedious affairs and get little coverage in the
Western media, particularly television.
Since 1984, this reporter has attended the openings of a number of party
congresses. Up until
1984, foreign reporters were not permitted any access to these secretive sessions held every
five years.
The following is a report on the 15th Chinese Communist Party Congress in 1997,the first one
after the death of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and the Congress meant to put Jiang Zemin's
imprint on Communist Party history.
Just after this conclave at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, work began on the Jiang succession.
In October 2002, and the 16th Party Congress, China would have a new leadership with a new
politburo of men aged in their sixties.
Groomed to replace Jiang both as party general secretary and President (in 2002 and 2003)
was Hu Jintao, a former party boss from Guizhou, one of China's poorest regions.
He also served in Tibet, where he pursued a tough policy of crackdowns
against Tibetan monks and nuns and anyone who showed allegiance to the
exiled Dalai Lama. |
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Meeting the Press |
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In October 1997, Chinese President and Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin made his first visit to
the United States.
Jiang, who was elevated to big power status in China in 1989 after the internal Party power
struggle connected to the bloody crackdown on the student democracy movement, has been trying to
create a personal legacy for himself.
Most reporters saw him as a slightly bumbling figure who saw himself as a political conciliator.
He appeared to be a man seeking a lasting reputation.
Prior to his visit he met with about 40 news people at the Great Hall of the People and it gave
me a chance to meet the Chinese leader and observe him up close as he waged a charm offensive. |
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What Jiang Zemin Told The Press
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Chinese President Jiang Zemin gave a rare press conference for
foreign reporters in Beijing on Saturday. Here’s what he said.
Jiang denied Wei Jingsheng and other
prominent dissidents had been jailed for their views:
“The people you mentioned are dissidents, I don’t think
their case is because of religious belief or their political
views but because they violated Chinese criminal law. So how
their case will be dealt with will be decided independently by
China’s judiciary department.”
Jiang applauded President
Clinton’s speech calling for a conciliatory relationship with
China:
“This time I will go with a very
friendly attitude on my visit to the United States . . . This
morning I heard that President Clinton attached a lot of
importance to my visit. At the same time we can tell
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from Clinton’s speech that he also attached great importance
to Sino-U.S. relations.”
He also appealed for American
sympathy for China’s political system:
“[I] hope the Americans will
understand that every country has its own process of developing
democracy and freedom. This is not a definite concept. It should
be according to economic development, history, culture,
tradition and the level of education of the people.”
He mentioned multi-million dollar
trade imbalance as a major problem:
“ I think on this matter there is one
problem that should be resolved, which is the surplus problem.
We hope that America will be more open on its export of
high-tech goods.”
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Wei Jingsheng Released as Jiang paves way for U.S. visit
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On the brink
of military confrontation in 1996 over Taiwan, China and the United
States came to the same painful realization: like it or not, they had to handle each other better.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin's trip to the United States-the first significant visit by a
Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping wooed Americans in 1979-was meant to put brakes on the
backward slide of Sino-American relations.
"We have to learn how to deal with China," said Nicholas Lardy, an expert on China at the
Brookings Institution in Washington. Despite a host of sensitive issues, both countries need the summit to work.
"This could be the most important U.S. bilateral relationship in the 21st century and in the
post-Cold War world."
Trade plays a major part in the dynamics of the U-S China relationship. The rising U-S trade
deficit with China could be a major sore point in future China relations as it has been since
the 1980's with Japan.
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The visit of President Jiang Zemin to the United States was followed by one by U-S President
Bill Clinton to China.
The effort was toward developing what the Clinton Administrative described as a policy of
"constructive engagement." |
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It was one in a history of attempts dating to 1978: to see China, not as a Communist adversary
but as a "partner" on the world stage, albeit a competitive one.
Human Rights remained a major irritant in the relationship, though President Clinton had gone
back on a pledge made in 1993 to place the issue as a top priority in the relationship.
To clear the way, however, for a visit to China by Clinton, the Chinese government agreed in
November 1997 to release into exile the best- known democracy advocate in China.
I had first come in indirect contact with dissident Wei Jingsheng in 1978, when during a visit
to China I read parts of his manifesto "The Fifth Modernization" on Beijing's "Democracy Wall." |
