Gore Left China Afte Academics Met Him

Civic Economics - Page A1

April 1, 1997

STORY IN RED CHINA NEWSPAPER MONDAY
Gore Left China After Discussions with Academics
By Hua ZHAO, YIN De An, The China Daily, Beijing
BEIJING - U.S. vice-president Al Gore ended his five-day visit to China in Shangshai on Friday and flew to Seoul, Reuters reported from Shanghai. The vice-president predicted that his two days of tough talks with Chinese leaders in Beijing would lead to 'significant progress' in the coming months on several sensitive areas that he did not specify.
Before his departure, Gore had a breakfast meeting with 10 Chinese academics to discuss the political situations in China and Sino-U.S. relations, Gore's press secretary Ginny Teranzo said. But Teranzo refused to reveal any details of the discussion or to identify these 10 academics.
Biased and negative coverage by foreign media could harm China only to a minor extent, but to remedy the present huge gap between China's reality and its image in the US media, both American journalists and Chinese authorities should pay their due efforts, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said, according to a Reuters report.
The China Daily carried an article signed by Cui Tiankai, urging American journalists to learn to see China with positive and dynamic views, and to adopt historical perspectives, so that they can assess China more accurately.
He wished that foreign reporters would pay more attention to 'what we have achieved' than to 'what we still desire.' In the article, Cui also conceded the inaccessibility of Chinese authorities and official information, which also contributed to the problem.
China's Foreign Ministry condemned the meeting between Dalai Lama and Taiwan President LEE Teng-hui, and warned that Beijing would never tolerate any moves to divide China, according to several reports by AFP and Reuters from Beijing and Taipei.
Lee received the Dalai Lama at the official government Taipei Guest House on the final day of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's six-day visit to Taiwan, despite a flood of warnings from Beijing against their meeting.
At a press conference after his meeting with Lee, the Dalai Lama insisted that he was not seeking to anger Beijing but to pave the way for a closer understanding between the two communities, repeating that he wanted autonomy not independence for Tibet.
In the full glare of international spotlight the Dalai Lama urged China to show reason in a changing world and sit down at the negotiating table. He said he was ready to meet without preconditions and voiced support of the 'one country, two systems"' plan, which Beijing considers as applicable to Hong Kong and Taiwan, but not to Tibet.
The Dalai Lama even predicted that he would live to see exiled Tibetans' return to their homeland, upon which he would resign as political leader.
Political analysts feel that, while the Dalai Lama has strengthened his hand in his long campaign to win freedom for Tibet with his visit to Taiwan, China still holds all the cards. After the Dalai Lama's departure from Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Cui Tiankai condemned his visit in a scathing attack before a scheduled media briefing.
Cui declared that 'We are opposed to any person using any methods in any place to engage in activities to split the motherland or to disrupt ethnic unity.' An official editorial, carried by Xinhua News Agency and China News Service, considers the Dalai Lama's Taiwan visit as harboring evil intentions, and accuses the Taiwan authorities of taking an extremely dangerous step on the road of separating the country in collaborating with the Tibetan independence forces.
[Fabian Fang, Daluo Jia of the China News Service contributed to this story.]

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