NO one outside of China will be surprised that the United States State Department's draft report on human rights has concluded that Beijing has not made sufficient progress in curbing abuses to win an extension of its Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trading status this summer. It is not a comprehensive report on international relations; it deals only with human rights. But the abuses it pinpoints are real. It is not, of course, Washington's final word on the subject. There are other voices calling for more pragmatism in dealing with China. But the report is a key element in the debate and President Bill Clinton will consider its findings when he makes up his mind on MFN.
When Mr Clinton extended MFN unconditionally for one year in 1993, he did so on the clear understanding that future renewals would depend on significant progress on human rights. To qualify in 1994, China must not only grant freedom of emigration and comply with previous commitments to end exports of products made of prison labour. It must also make significant progress in adhering to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, releasing political prisoners, ensuring humane treatment of prisoners, protecting Tibet's religious and cultural heritage and permitting international radio and television broadcasts into China.
Progress on these fronts has been patchy. But on the highest profile matter of releasing and accounting for political prisoners it has been particularly poor. Those prisoners who have been let out early have tended to have only a short period left to serve and to have been released in small numbers just before crucial deadlines, such as the decision on which city should host the 2000 Olympics. Few in the West were impressed by such tactics. Indeed, the release of political prisoners at critical times onlyserves as a reminder that China imprisons those who hold dissenting views. The draft report also finds other serious faults, including arbitrary arrest, torture and ill-treatment of political and religious prisoners and continued repression.
But China's tactic of rejecting all outside criticism of its record, as Foreign Ministry spokesman Wu Jianmin did yesterday, will do nothing to persuade Mr Clinton that Beijing has got the message. China continues to behave as if the West's concerns are not to be taken seriously.
China was buoyed by the meeting between President Jiang Zemin and Mr Clinton. The US President might be inclined to take a more pragmatic attitude because he recognises China's potentially immense importance to the fortunes of his economy. But the US political system has built-in checks and balances, so Mr Clinton's view, on any issue, is not necessarily the one that wins out. So China cannot assume the critics will go away or that its other trade disputes with the US will not further sour the MFN debate.It cannot assume that because Mr Clinton has tried to heal relations recently that the whole US political system will back him up.
China needs to put in some hard work on its relations with the US. If MFN is to be renewed, it will not be as a result of threats of retaliation or of the release of a few token dissidents in the final days before the decision is due.
