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Christopher spoke out more sharply than usual on the dissident arrests. "It would be hard to overstate the strong distaste we all feel over the recent detentions and hostile measures taken by the Chinese," he said. The moves would certainly "have a negative effect on my trip to China." A Foreign Ministry statement responded that the government had full authority to take in ex-convicts for questioning and that no foreigners have "the right to make irresponsible remarks or interfere."
Chinese authorities insisted that relations between Washington and Beijing were on the mend until Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck met with dissident Wei Jingsheng two weeks ago. Last week Christopher was unapologetic. "We cannot accept any restrictions on meetings between our diplomats and officials and Chinese citizens who are not accused of crimes," he said through a spokesman. "We cannot accept punishment and intimidation of those Chinese who choose to meet with us."
Washington was mildly encouraged two months ago when President Jiang Zemin told a visiting U.S. congressional delegation that China would "make an effort" to deal with American concerns on human rights. But, as the monitors of Asia Watch reported last month, "political repression is increasing, not decreasing, and it extends to virtually every province in China." Unofficial political and religious activity is illegal, and thousands are in prison for vaguely defined "counterrevolutionary" crimes like subverting the government or splitting the motherland. Detainees are held in prolonged isolation, and many are mistreated or tortured to force confessions.
Some Western analysts believed that Beijing would come down hard on the resurgent activists only to relent by the June deadline to demonstrate enough improvement to merit renewal of MFN. Or, the experts said, the tough old communists expect Clinton to back down and compromise. Either way, they are making it extremely difficult for themselves to meet the U.S. demand for % "overall significant progress." Last week they were not even trying.