Clinton Reaffirms One-China Policy

U.S. President Bill Clinton on Wednesday reaffirmed his support for the one-China policy. "I support the one-China policy," Clinton told a press conference at the White House which covered a broad range of issues around the world.

It is the second time in less than two weeks that Clinton reiterated his commitment to the one-China policy since Chen Shui- bian, candidate for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), won the regional election in Taiwan on March 18.

Clinton noted that the United States made an agreement on the one-China policy with the Chinese a long time ago, "when we normalized relations under President (Jimmy) Carter, after a period of years of developing them, starting with President ( Richard) Nixon's historic trip there."

The one-China policy, he said, has ever since become "the unanimous bipartisan position of every president and every administration that that was the right decision."

Clinton warned that the U.S.-China relations "would be at a critical stage if we were to abandon our one-China policy."

Referring to the WTO issue, Clinton said that the United States needs to give its businesses, farmers and workers access to the world's largest consumer market in China.

"There is no more important long-term international economic or national security issue facing us today," he said.

Clinton, who submitted to the Capitol Hill earlier this month a piece of legislation advocating Permanent Normal Trade Relations ( PNTR) for China, urged Congress to pass the bill this spring.

"If we do not do this, then the full benefits of all we negotiated will flow to all the other countries in the WTO, but not to the United States. The economic consequences will be bad.

The national security consequences will be worse," he said.

If the United States rejects China PNTR, "we'll lose economic opportunities we'll regret for 20 years," he said.

The Clinton administration has launched a nation-wide campaign in the past weeks to mobilize support for China's entry into the WTO and normalized trade status with the country. A debate and vote on the PNTR bill is now impending in Congress, where a fierce battle is expected, especially in the House of Representatives.

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