Bush in China: Friendly but no breakthrough

The administration of President Jiang Zemin has expressed satisfaction with the just-ended visit by U.S. counterpart George W. Bush despite the lack of tangible results.

At his joint press conference with Bush on Thursday, Jiang said both sides had "reached many areas of consensus and achieved positive results in many aspects."

However, as one Peking University political scientist put it, the summit showcased a lot of friendly rhetoric but there was no breakthrough.

Beijing's reading of the summit was evident in the way the story had been handled by major newspapers and websites.

The emphasis in the state media was on the U.S. tours later this year by Jiang and Vice-President Hu Jintao, signs that both sides had achieved what Jiang called a "high-level strategic dialogue."

Official media also played up Bush's reference to bilateral ties as a "mature relationship" and the U.S. leader's characterization of China as one of the most important nations in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Great power diplomacy

Beijing analysts said Jiang believed the establishment of personal ties and regular channels of communications with American leaders was initial proof of the success of his vaunted "great power diplomacy."

The analysts said no small part of the new "maturity" in Sino-U.S. ties was evidenced by the fact that leaders from both sides had toned down their differences at least when talking in public.

For example, Beijing was unhappy that while speaking in the Japanese Diet, Bush made much of America's "commitments" to the Taiwan people.

And in his short stay in Beijing, Bush made repeated reference to the Taiwan Relations Act, which spelled out Washington's obligations regarding the defense of the island.

However, during the summit, Jiang played down his differences with Bush on Taiwan and Chinese officials did not publicly bring up Washington's recent arms sales to Taiwan.

Hosts given face

On the question of the anti-terrorist campaign, the Jiang team did not raise the point – made repeatedly in the Chinese media -- about the dubious logic of the "axis of evil" concept.

Similar restraint and diplomatic tact was displayed by Bush, who gave his hosts a lot of face when he made no direct criticism of Beijing's harsh treatment of dissidents and members of underground churches.

The U.S. president chose to make his point about religion in a long discourse on the importance of faith when talking to Tsinghua University students on Friday.

A Chinese diplomatic source said Jiang had recently laid down two instructions on relations with the U.S.

One was to avoid direct confrontation as much as possible, because open conflict might not necessarily bring about desirable results.

The source said that in internal sessions, Jiang aides had cited Beijing's vehement opposition to the military action of the U.S. and NATO in Kosovo in 1999.

By contrast, the Jiang leadership has kept an uncharacteristically low profile regarding Washington's actions in Central Asia and Bush's implicit threat of bringing down the Baghdad regime.

Playing the business card

The source added that Jiang preferred playing the business card, a reference to the fact that with China and the U.S. becoming mutually dependent on economic matters, even a right-wing White House would think twice about damaging Chinese interests.

Jiang is understood to have cited the example of how European countries have ceased to sell arms to Taiwan in the wake of the fast-growing business links between the European Union and China.

Diplomatic analysts said a number of anticipated agreements between the two countries did not come to pass at the summit.

These included an agreement on arms non-proliferation, an agreement to resume military-to-military exchanges, setting up of more mechanisms for sharing terrorism-related intelligence, and Beijing's release of dissidents and underground religious figures.

The analysts said Jiang also had to parry internal criticism that he had been too conciliatory toward the Americans, particularly on the Taiwan issue.

However, it is believed that the dictum Jiang referred to at Thursday's press conference -- "more haste, less speed" -- is meant for Chinese critics of his American policy as much as for American critics of the slow progress of reform in China.