CLINTON - is briefed by State on China trip

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NYDailyNews

Bush Aide Preps Bill on China

WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton, who is expected to meet with top Chinese officials in Hong Kong next week, was briefed by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice yesterday on the sticky state of affairs between the U.S. and China.

It was the second top-level China briefing for the ex-President before his trip, during which he is expected to meet with Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin.

Nevertheless, the administration insisted that Clinton won't carry any messages from President Bush.

Without fanfare, he slipped into the State Department on Thursday for a skull session with James Keith, head of the China desk. An administration official described it as "a courtesy we routinely extend in situations like this," adding that Clinton requested the briefing. He chatted with Rice by phone yesterday.

Earlier in the week, a Clinton aide telephoned a top staffer at the National Security Council to ask whether the administration had any problem with his travel plans. Two officials said Clinton was told there was no objection to his trip.

At a political event in upstate Rochester attended by her husband yesterday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was asked whether it's appropriate for him to go to China while relations between the two countries are strained by the collision of a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet.

"I will leave that to him and his staff to comment on," she said, "but I know that he's been in very close touch with the Bush administration."

Thomas M. DeFrank

-- Anonymous, May 05, 2001


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