The New York Times
April 14, 1999
NEW YORK -- The
chanting of the two dozen protesters across
the street from
the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel could barely be heard
over the din
of Manhattan traffic Tuesday, but they persisted, hoping their
message would
somehow reach Prime Minister Zhu Rongji as he
conducted meetings
inside the hotel.
"Maybe we might
not make a difference standing out here," said Sonam
Zoksang, a Tibetan-born
photographer. "But at least I am an annoyance
to Zhu right
now, and I'm doing it for the 6 million Tibetans who are
suffering because
of the Chinese government."
Orderly groups
of protesters calling for the independence of Tibet
followed Zhu
across New York City Tuesday as he met with business
leaders, politicians
and members of the Chinese-American community.
At their peak,
protesters numbered about 200 outside the Hilton Hotel,
where Zhu attended
a dinner with the United States-China Business
Council. The
low-key demonstrations mirrored the generally muted
response of
the Chinese-American community to Zhu's visit.
Unlike the visit
of President Jiang Zemin in 1997, when Chinese flags
flew along the
streets of Chinatown for the duration, there was much less
fanfare for
Zhu.
John Young, executive
director of the Committee of 100, which he
described as
a group that "promotes friendship between the Chinese and
American people,"
said there was relatively little hoopla because "the
atmosphere is
quite bad right now." He was referring to recent
accusations
that China tried to influence the 1996 presidential election
and that a spy
had passed nuclear weapons secrets from a government
weapons laboratory
at Los Alamos, N.M., to China.
Chinese-language
newspapers, particularly those with pro-China stances,
have followed
Zhu's travels in the United States closely.
"His visit has
been aimed more at business and not so much on the
overseas Chinese,"
said David Chen, of the Chinatown Planning Council.
"But even though
it's been pretty low key in the community, of course
there are segments
of the community that are very enthusiastic that he's
here."
Youngman Lee,
president of the United Orient Bank in Chinatown, said
that while Zhu
might not be as politically important as Jiang, "he may be
more important
because he's the bread-and-butter guy."
The protesters
who shadowed Zhu included people calling for freedom
in Tibet, the
release of Mongolian and Tibetan political prisoners, and
recognition
of Taiwanese sovereignty.
"The Chinese
have been threatening to use force against Taiwan for years
and we don't
want China interfering in our sovereignty," said Bor-Cheng
Shu, a member
of the Taiwanese Collegian, a group of Taiwanese
college students
and graduates.
Catherine Shieh,
the international campaign director of the Taiwanese
Collegian, said
the protests were important because "at least it shows the
world that people
in New York are watching what's going on inside
China."
Thupten
Tsering [Grassroots Coordinator of Students for a Free Tibet], a
Tibetan-born filmmaker who like many Tibetan exiles was raised in India,
said the chanting and waving of Tibetan flags outside the Waldorf and the
Hilton was one of the few ways Tibetans could send a message to China.
"Zhu's here as a leader," he said. "If he hears what we're doing, he'll
at
least know that people are not keeping silent here as they are in China.
And maybe he can rethink what China's doing."
The New York Times
April 14, 1999
NEW YORK -- Chinese
Prime Minister Zhu Rongji swept into
New York on
Tuesday, shunning all ceremony to focus on the
thing that makes
his pulse race: capitalism.
Nearing the end
of a nine-day tour of America, Zhu barely budged from
his suite at
the Waldorf-Astoria, where he entertained top corporate
executives,
local political leaders and diplomats for nearly eight hours.
Zhu seems never
to tire of courting Corporate America. He spent most
of his day lobbying
for more investment and urging businessmen to
support China's
drive to join the regulatory body for world trade, people
who met with
him said.
But as a tribute
to New York's status as the world's leading financial
center, he pushed
a button to start trading on the Nasdaq stock market,
the electronic
network of brokers that has become the largest stock
market in the
world. Zhu then presented Nasdaq officials with a gift, a
red wooden bull.
"Always bull market," said Zhu in English.
But he had little
else to say during his quick tour of Nasdaq's Wall Street
site and seemed
eager to slip back to his hotel. There, his advance team
lined up a formidable
meeting schedule with almost 40 chief executives,
including a
breakfast for media elites and a lunch with insurance and
banking leaders.
"There are just
a tremendous number of business leaders who know
him," said Robert
Hormats, a managing director at Goldman, Sachs who
joined the prime
minister for a detailed discussion of Chinese financial
reforms at lunch.
"Most of these people had not just met him once, but
multiple times.
He makes a point of keeping in touch."
Tuesday night,
Zhu was feted at a dinner sponsored by the Economic
Club, where
he spoke at length on his desire to make China a member of
the World Trade
Organization. The drive to join the group that sets the
rules for global
commerce has been Zhu's preoccupation during his
six-city tour
of America, and he has had nary a meeting or public
engagement during
which he does not speak on the topic.
The prime minister
told media guests Tuesday morning that he had
listened to
protesters on the street below his hotel room Monday night,
shortly after
his arrival in the city. But the demonstrators, most of them
calling for
the independence of Tibet, had dwindled by mid-day Tuesday,
outnumbered
by uniformed police officers around the hotel.
In fact, perhaps
the bigger story was that urbane and jocular Zhu, who
ranks third
in China's Communist Party hierarchy, seems to incite less
animosity toward
China than his boss, the often reserved President Jiang
Zemin. The two
have embraced in an awkward political dance since they
were the top
officials in Shanghai in the late 1980s. At that time and more
recently, after
the two moved to Beijing to take the top posts in the
central government,
Zhu served Jiang loyally even though Chinese and
foreigners like
him much better than they do his boss.
When Jiang visited
New York in 1997, Gov. George Pataki and Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani
avoided him, generating headlines. Pataki might also
have snubbed
a Chinese leader this time, as well. Just one month ago,
under an executive
proclamation from the governor's office, New York
celebrated "Tibet
National Day" in honor of the state's official support of
Tibetans "in
their fight for freedom, independence and democracy."
Instead, Pataki
accepted Zhu's invitation to make a courtesy call at the
Waldorf. They
held a wide ranging discussion on human rights and trade.
Pataki said
he gave the prime minister a letter urging the release of 100
people still
imprisoned for their roles in the Tiananmen Square protests of
1989.
Pataki declined
to discuss the reasons why he was willing to meet one
Chinese leader
and not his superior. But he reflected the views of many
American politicians,
scholars and even a few exiled Chinese dissidents
when he said
that he sees Zhu as someone who can help change China.
(Business executives
also like Zhu, but they are eager to court Jiang as
well).
"I think he's
been a strong advocate of an open economy, but also the
rule of law
and human rights," said Pataki after his mid-day meeting. "This
is something
we want to encourage."
Members
of Students for a Free Tibet, who protested outside the
Waldorf, said they were surprised that Pataki chose to meet with Zhu
after the Jiang snub.
"We suspect there was a lot of pressure for the governor to meet with
Zhu -- from other Republicans and from the governors of other states
that Zhu has visited," said John Hocevar, executive director of the
student's group.
Sonam Zoksang,
a Tibetan-American photographer who was among the
two dozen protesters
at the hotel, said he had no problem with Pataki
meeting with
Zhu.
"I believe it's
important to engage, but we also have to let them know
very clearly
that what's happening inside Tibet needs to be addressed,"
he said.
At least in public,
Zhu allows no discrepancies between his position and
Jiang's on human
rights and Tibet. In fact, the prime minister seems less
willing to engage
in serious discussion of that topic than Jiang, who
debated human
rights, Tibet and Taiwan at length with President Clinton
during a state
visit to the United States visit and during Clinton's
reciprocal visit
to China.
But Zhu's relentless
focus on economics shields him from the criticism
often directed
at Jiang and the No. 2 man in the Chinese political system,
National People's
Congress Chairman Li Peng.
Zhu's day began
with a a breakfast hosted by Time Warner chairman
Gerald Levin,
and the guest list included executives from The Wall Street
Journal, Newsweek,
CBS, CNN, The Associated Press and The New
York Times.
The prime minister mostly fielded questions, participants
said.
Zhu pointed out
to the executives that the United States had committed
itself to reach
an agreement in 1999 on China's membership in the World
Trade Organization.
He said the agreement was "99 percent" complete.
But he expressed
concern that if the two sides do not conclude their talks
shortly, they
could lose the chance, because the rules for entry to the
trade group
will change in October.
"We must have
an agreement by October, or 13 years are out the
window and we
have to start again," Zhu said.
Around a horseshoe-shaped
table over lunch, Zhu briefed the top
executives from
Merrill Lynch, Chase Manhattan, Chubb, AIG and other
banks, brokerage
and insurance companies on his efforts to remake
China's financial
system. He detailed some banking reforms, including an
initiative to
reform the central bank along the lines of America's Federal
Reserve, people
who attended said.
Zhu also warned
bankers that they should not count on government
bailouts when
they make loans to companies that cannot repay them.
That has been
a pressing concern for foreign bankers in China since the
collapse of
Guangdong International Trust & Investment Corp., a major
investment company
that defaulted on its debt late last year despite close
ties to the
Guangdong provincial government.
"Do your homework,"
Zhu cautioned, according to one person there. He
said, however,
that he did not foresee any similar credit troubles coming.
The prime minister
is scheduled to leave New York on Wednesday for a
stop in Boston
before continuing on to Canada.
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