U.S. and Hong Kong (1985-1997)

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
(Denver, Colorado)

For Immediate Release
June 22, 1997

PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE PRESIDENT

Colorado Convention Center
Denver, Colorado

2:25 P.M. MDT

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The progress we've made here in Denver demonstrates again what I have said so many times in the last five years. In this new era, foreign policy and domestic policy are increasingly intertwined. For us to be strong at home, we must lead in the world. And for us to be able to lead in the world, we must have a strong and dynamic economy at home and a society that is addressing its problems aggressively and effectively.

To continue that path, let me say, there are some things we have to embrace on the home front and on the international front. First, Congress must pass a balanced budget plan consistent with the agreement we made and with our values. The balanced budget must include a tax cut that is as far as possible to middle class families and meets their real needs, providing help for education, for child rearing, for buying and selling a home. I will also insist that any tax cut be consistent with a balanced budget over the long run. We cannot afford time-bomb tax cuts that will explode in future years and undo our hard-won progress.

This will be a crucial test of our will to continue the economic strategy that has produced American prosperity in the last few years - - balancing the budget and investing in our people as we move into a new century.

Second, after our own Independence Day, I will travel abroad for a NATO Summit where we'll take a historic step to lock in freedom and stability in Europe. In Madrid, we'll invite the first of Europe's new democracies to join our Alliance, to advance our goal of building a continent that is undivided, democratic, and at peace for the first time in history.

Third, we'll move ahead with our leadership of the world economy and with the obligations and the opportunities that come with it. I urge Congress to vote next week to continue normal trade relations with China so that we can maintain our ties with one-quarter of the world's people, advance human rights and religious freedom there, continue our cooperation for stability on the Korean Peninsula, and to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and keep Hong Kong's economy strong as it reverts to Chinese sovereignty.

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Q: Mr. President, even before next week's reversion of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, there are some ominous signs that China plans to roll back some of the rights and freedoms that the people of Hong Kong now enjoy. I know that the communique here in Denver addressed that issue, but what can the United States and the other industrial democracies do if China fails to deliver on the 1984 agreement?

THE PRESIDENT: It's interesting, we spent a lot of time talking about that this morning, and mostly we were listening to Prime Minister Blair, who obviously has the highest level of knowledge about this and the deepest experience, and a lot of personal involvement with Hong Kong, I might add.

Our sense is that, obviously, we don't exactly what will happen, but that we have all committed to work with the British to try to continue to insist on and preserve the integrity of the '84 agreement, and we also do not want to assume the bad faith of the Chinese. I think that would be an error. China made a commitment in 1984, and they asked our country when President Reagan was in office to actually bless or endorse the commitment when China and Great Britain made the commitment to have one China, but two systems. And that definition clearly included political as well as economic differences.

You know, I hate -- I don't like to answer hypothetical questions, and I think anything we do will only make it worse. I think what we want to do is to encourage the Chinese to remember they have a unique, almost unprecedented place now that is reverting to their sovereignty, and that part of the fabric of what makes Hong Kong work is not just open markets and industrious people and a haven of hope for people who flee the lack of opportunity and often oppression elsewhere, but a lively and open society. And it needs to be maintained, and I hope that it will be.

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Q: President Clinton, some of the critics of your decision to renew Most Favored Nation trade status for China say that perhaps watching the transition of Hong Kong should have been taken into consideration before granting that status. Was that ever a consideration? And in your opinion, how realistic is a one-country, two-systems policy?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, the answer to the first part of your question is, we have to make this decision now, and I think we should now. This thing will obviously be revisited within a year. I think if we look like we were -- again, I would say to you, China is a very large country. It has great ties with the rest of the world. If we were to basically say, the United States believes we can keep you on probation all by yourself, and we're going to see what you do, we're like assuming their bad faith. I think that would be a mistake.

On the one-country, two-systems thing, I think it is realistic, but I think there will be some tensions there. And what we, of course, in the United States hope is that the tensions will steadily be resolved over time in favor of freedom and openness, free speech, personal freedom and democracy.

But let me remind you, 25 years ago, when President Nixon went to China, or in 1979 when President Carter recognized China and worked out the understandings of how we relate to China and how we would relate to Taiwan. There is plainly a lot more personal freedom and mobility and personal well- being in China today than there was then. In other words, our frustrations with China today are not measured against the standard of 1979 or 1972; they're measured with our deep disappointment and disagreement with 1989 and Tiananmen Square and our lack of success in persuading the Chinese to, in effect, go back to the status quo before Tiananmen Square and keep moving forward.

In the life of a country like China, that's not such a long time. And I'm just not prepared to give up on our engagement policy. So that's all I can say about it.

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Q: -- over China will definitely try very hard to sell the so-called one-county, two-system formula and hope Taiwan will be on board. And the leaders in Taiwan made it clear that that formula is not acceptable for them. So I wonder what will be the U.S. policy on Taiwan after Hong Kong is turned over, and whether the U.S. will buy this one- country, two-system formula on the issue of Taiwan.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, the most important element of United States policy will not change as it relates to Taiwan, and that is that there can be no forcible resolution of that issue, and that while we accept the idea of one China, it has always been our policy, for some years now, as you know, we also -- a critical part of that policy is that the people of Taiwan and the people of China must resolve their differences in a peaceable way, agreeable to all.

So that's the only really critical element that we have to reaffirm there. I think the people of Taiwan are going to be -- and the leaders of Taiwan will be watching how the Hong Kong transition goes, and I think that their attitude about what their own position should be will probably be affected by that. Thank you very much.

(end transcript)