Jiang calls for restraint against U.S.

Jiang is hoping to achieve a peaceful international environment

By Willy Wo Lap Lam
CNN Senior China Analyst

(CNN) -- President Jiang Zemin has expressed hopes that ties with the United States will enter a new and positive cycle after a scheduled visit to Beijing next month by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

A party source said yesterday Jiang had internal discussions on Sino-U.S. relations and will continue to urge officials and the populace to "exercise restraint and patience" towards America.

"Showing restraint does not mean being soft or selling out the country," Jiang reportedly said in a talk to his aides earlier this month.

"It is not wise [for Chinese] to do things to artificially disrupt relations with the U.S."

The president reiterated that economic development, the nation's main task, required a peaceful international environment.

Jiang also cited the late patriarch Deng Xiaoping's instruction that it was to the nation's advantage to "keep a low profile" on the international scene.

Jiang, however, indicated Beijing would not make any compromise on important issues such as Washington's planned development of a national missile defense (NMD) system.

"We will continue to oppose NMD because it is detrimental to world peace," Jiang said.

A mission to mend fences

On relations with counterpart George W. Bush, Jiang expressed the hope that the U.S. leader's views on China would change after he had got to know the country better.

"Bush junior lacks an understanding of China," Jiang told his aides, adding that he did not think the majority of the U.S. public was "anti-China."

Diplomatic sources in Beijing said Chinese foreign-policy experts had characterized Powell's forthcoming visit as a mission to mend fences.

Top on the Secretary of State's agenda is to lay the groundwork for Bush's visit to Shanghai and Beijing in October.

The foreign-policy experts also considered as encouraging a bilateral agreement reached earlier this week on the final terms for China's accession to the World Trade Organization.

Positive spin

Meanwhile, Jiang has asked his colleagues to give a generally positive spin to Sino-U.S. relations.

In a talk to Tsinghua University students last week, Premier Zhu Rongji pointed out it would be futile to "talk tough" to the U.S. when the nation's economic strength was not up to scratch.

While announcing last week the bilateral agreement on ways to take a damaged U.S. spy plane back to America, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman expressed the wish that bilateral ties would henceforward go on a positive track.

And on Wednesday, the Chinese media gave ample coverage to an opinion poll in the U.S. showing that 59% of Americans thought it was important to maintain good ties with China.