In light of the discussion concerning China's most recent threats to the US, I find the following report most interesting. (Please forget my inability to link.) NPC group in landmark US meetings

By Charles Snyder in Washington

STORY: IN a trip that could have significant long-term importance for Sino-US relations, a group of National People's Congress members began a week-long series of meetings with American congressmen and government officials in Washington yesterday, the first such meetings since the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

The nine NPC members, led by Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Zeng Jianhui, are in the United States at the invitation of the leadership of the House of Representatives.

A Chinese embassy spokesman told the Hong Kong Standard that the visit is believed to be the first since a similar trip in the spring of 1989, on the eve of the Tiananmen massacre.

During the visit, the group will meet with a number of senior representatives and Senators, special presidential assistant Kenneth Lieberthal, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering, Deputy US Trade Representative Richard Fisher and Deputy Assistant Defence Secretary Kurt Campbell.

The delegation presided over the opening of a photo exhibition of the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, and held a reception with members of Congress hosted by the American nuclear power industry.

While in Washington, they will also meet with World Bank officials to discuss projects on the mainland and the US-China Business Council on trade issues. They will also tour the US Naval Academy in nearby Anapolis, Maryland.

Reflecting the strains that remain with Congress, details of those planned meetings have been sketchy since Congress requested that the meetings be kept secret, without press coverage, according to a Chinese embassy source.

But it has been learned that there will be meetings with members of what is called the US-China Inter-Parliamentary Exchange Group, a loose group of congressmen with interests in China relations headed by Representative Donald Manzullo, a member of the International Relations and Banking committees.

Other members include International Relations East Asia sub-committee chairman Douglas Bereuter and Rules Committee chairman David Dreier, both strong supporters of better Sino-US political and trade relations.

US and Chinese embassy sources describe the meetings as informal exchanges of information and an educational experience.

However, the discussions are likely to involve some sharp exchanges between lawmakers from both sides. Some US participants are expected to be long-term critics of the mainland.

The discussions are expected to deal with trade, human rights, Taiwan and Tibet, religious affairs, and security and scientific matters.

Beijing has traditionally treated relations with the US Congress as secondary to ties with the administration. That changed in 1995, when Congress forced the Clinton administration to reverse itself and grant a visa to Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui to give a speech to his alma mater, Cornell University, which outraged Beijing.

In response, then-ambassador Li Daoyu was briefly called back to Beijing, and the congressional section at the embassy was considerable strengthened. However, Congress has continued to be a main source of antagonism to the mainland, as shown in its extended hearings on Chinese campaign-finance violations, the Cox Report on alleged nuclear espionage and repeated anti-mainland resolutions on human rights, religious freedom and Taiwan.

-- I.M. Benedict (prayingdown@theriver.com), March 01, 2000

Answers

The article sighted above is from:

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a380594f64bcf.htm

-- I.M. Benedict (prayingdown@theriver.com), March 01, 2000.

Thanks for the link, the article came from Hong Cong Standard. (on 10/14/99). I learned a few good HTML style tricks from the posts Jolly puts up on FreeRepublic.

-- Possible Impact (posim@hotmail.com), March 01, 2000.

Hello Hilo. Hello Hilo.

can you hear me? Can you hear me??

EAST WIND RAIN. EAST WIND RAIN. EAST WIND RAIN.

a history-readin night driver

History does not always repeat itself but sometimes it rhymes.,

C

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), March 02, 2000.