22 March 2001 Background Briefing: Bush Emphasizes "Common Ground" with China During his meeting March 22 with China's Vice Premier Qian Qichen, President George Bush emphasized the "common ground" between the two nations. During a background briefing the same day, a senior administration official said Bush told Qian: "I'm confident that we have common ground.... We can have good relations with China. I want to lay the foundation for 30 years from now, taking a long-term view." According to the U.S. official, the two leaders discussed the World Trade Organization, human rights, and regional security issues, among other things. President Bush, the official said, assured Qian that "Nothing we do is a threat to you, and I want you to tell that to your leadership." Bush, the official said, has a "realistic view" and is "plainspeaking," believing that "you can have cordial relations and a good atmosphere and still be clear and firm." Specifically, Bush was firm about human rights and U.S. desires to have good relations with China, according to the official. Following is the White House transcript of the briefing: The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 22, 2001 Background Briefing by A Senior Administration Official The James S. Brady Briefing Room 5:15 P.M. EST Senior Administration Official: The President and the Vice Premier started the official start, essentially, to the relationship between the United States and China with a very constructive and cordial meeting. I'll give you a few quotes. The President said that "I'm confident that we have common ground." He said, "I'm going to look you in the eye and tell you we can have good relations with China." He said, "I want to lay the foundation for 30 years from now, taking a long-term view." Additionally, they talked about WTO, human rights, regional security issues, and the President's upcoming trip. I'll give you another quote on regional security issues. He said, "Nothing we do is a threat to you, and I want you to tell that to your leadership." With that I'll open to your questions. Q: Did the Taiwan issue ever come up during the discussion, or about the NMD issue? Senior Administration Official: Yes, those issues were discussed during the visit. Q: What was discussed? Senior Administration Official: As the President said, as you heard in the meeting there, the President reaffirmed our commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act and our obligations under it. Q: The President said at the top that if the Vice Premier wanted to raise the issue of urging the United States not to sell the Aegis system or others to Taiwan, they would give him a hearing. Did that issue come up? Did the Vice Premier make a case? What was the President's response? Senior Administration Official: That specific issue was not addressed. Q: Not at all? Arms sales to Taiwan was not addressed at all? Senior Administration Official: No, arms sales were addressed during the visit, but the specific question that was raised in the prebrief about the stories was not raised. Q: Did the President ask for an explanation about the detention of the American professor and members of his family? Senior Administration Official: The President discussed our concerns about human rights, and the issue of the specific issue about that person was raised. Q: And what was their response? Senior Administration Official: The response was that there may or may not have been -- she may or may not have realized that she had a violation, and they're going to look into it and get back to us. Q: I'm sorry, who is "she"? Senior Administration Official: They're talking about their situation. Ms. Countryman: She may or may not have realized she broke the law, is what he's saying. Q: What about the boy who was separated from the parents? Senior Administration Official: That issue was raised, and our -- with our extreme concern. That's not a quote from what the President said, but it was forcefully raised during the visit. Q: And what was the response on the issue of the boy? Senior Administration Official: Similar to the previous one. Q: Really? Senior Administration Official: No, no. Their response did not reply to that particular one point. Q: Do you have any details on the discussion on arms sales? Senior Administration Official: No, we have no -- we didn't get into -- we do not discuss the details of arms sales, and we did not. Q: Did President Bush express his concern about the missile deployment on the Taiwan strait, or the budget -- defense budget increase? Senior Administration Official: Those issues were addressed during the meetings, yes. Q: How it was addressed? Senior Administration Official: I'm not going to discuss the specific details of that. Q: What did the President -- Q: Were there any discussions on proliferation issues or Chinese nationals working in the Middle East? Senior Administration Official: In the discussion of common ground, there was a discussion concerning that both countries shared the common concerns about proliferation into areas, and that this was an area that we could find common ground and work together to prevent the proliferation around the world. Q: But any discussion of specific areas of U.S. concern, like Iraq or -- Senior Administration Official: Those issues were raised, yes. Q: Before the meeting began, the President said he will be firm with China. And yet you have a quote that you gave us in which the President said, we could have good relations. Is there any contradiction between -- Senior Administration Official: No. The President is plainspeaking, and he speaks the realistic view. And you can have cordial relations and a good atmosphere and still be clear and firm. Q: On what issues was he firm? Senior Administration Official: The President was firm about human rights. The President was firm about our desire to have good relations with China. Q: Did they talk about religious freedom? Senior Administration Official: That issue was raised, yes. Q: What specifically did he say on that? Senior Administration Official: I'm not going to discuss specifics. Q: Did the Vice Premier make any kind of threats about the effect of arms sales to Taiwan? Senior Administration Official: There were no threats during the visit -- (laughter) -- to the President. To the President. There were no threats to the President. Q: To the President -- Q: How about WTO? Senior Administration Official: WTO was discussed. They both -- let me just be clear -- not to the President, specifically, but he didn't threaten anything. There wasn't any discussion of threats in the meeting. I'm sorry, WTO. Yes, WTO was discussed. The President urged that there be an early -- looking forward to China's accession to WTO, and they both discussed that there are issues that remain to be worked out. Q: Did Mr. Qian ask Mr. Bush to define the difference between a strategic competitor and a strategic partner? Senior Administration Official: No, there was no discussion about that. Q: On Korea -- Senior Administration Official: Yes, the two leaders discussed their view of regional issues and Korea was among the discussion. Q: The Chinese always maintain that if the United States sells the Aegis destroyers it will be a serious violation of the joint communique of August 17, 1982. Did this come up at all? What's your response to that charge? Senior Administration Official: The specific issues of specific arms sales were not discussed in the meeting. Q: Was there any moment in the meeting when they said, I'm sorry, I have to disagree with you on that one, and if so, on what issues? Senior Administration Official: There were areas where there was agreement that this would be an area in which we agree. And there were points where it was said that there will be areas in which we disagree. Q: Did he name them? Senior Administration Official: One of the areas that was mentioned is that we have different views about human rights, and our views may be different from your views, but they're important to us. Q: Irrespective of what happened in the meeting, does the administration consider the Aegis request by the Taiwanese -- Senior Administration Official: I'm here just to talk about -- to background of the meeting. Sorry. Q: What about the one China policy or the three no's? Senior Administration Official: What about it? Q: Three no's? Senior Administration Official: Three no's were not discussed in the meeting. Q: Regardless of whether or not -- you said that the Aegis -- you said the specific weapon systems were not raised, I understand that, but the general issue of weapons sales was. Did China express its general view that the United States should not sell weapons to Taiwan? Senior Administration Official: The specific issue -- no, that view was not expressed in the meeting. Q: Can you explain, then, how the issue was raised, the issue of arms sales, in general? Senior Administration Official: I don't want to get into the nuances of the discussions, but the context was in the overall tenor of the relationship. And as the President said, we have -- we adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, and that's the basis for our obligations with Taiwan. Q: Just so I understand it and so we have some context, what was the Vice Premier's view on the general issue of arms sales? Senior Administration Official: I think -- well, I think we're all aware of what his views are about it. Q: And that is what was expressed in their general -- Senior Administration Official: I don't want to get into how he expressed his views in the meeting. You have to ask his people. Q: Did President Bush promise a state visit to Beijing in -- Senior Administration Official: They discussed a visit in general, but not specifically a state visit. Q: The Chinese -- Mr. Qichen has been saying that the President and President Jiang have been exchanging letters. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Senior Administration Official: There was an exchange of letters when the President first became President, and the Chinese reacted favorably to the exchange of letters. And the Premier commented favorably on that. Q: Did the Vice Premier bring another letter from President Jiang to President Bush? Senior Administration Official: Not to my knowledge. Q: Was there any discussion specifically of the concerns of the Falun Gong and Chinese treatment of Falun Gong? Senior Administration Official: There was a general discussion about religious freedom, but not at that point. Q: There were no threats, you said, in the meeting, but the President, of course, knew comments made by the Vice Premier before the meeting about if the U.S. goes ahead with those weapons sales, that China would take military action against Taiwan. So did the President, President Bush, convey anything in light of what he had heard earlier in the week? Senior Administration Official: The President conveyed that he felt that there were areas in which we would agree and areas which we disagreed, and we thought that we could find common ground and work through areas in which we disagree. Q: But in terms of Taiwan, specifically, was there -- Senior Administration Official: Not specifically. Q: -- a specific message from the White House about encouraging cross-strait dialogue, not going -- Senior Administration Official: We have talked about these issues with him, yes. Q: Can you be more specific about the message that was -- Senior Administration Official: No. Q: What was Qian Qichen's remarks or statements on the national defense system? National missile defense? Senior Administration Official: The discussion about national missile defense was the expression by the President that national missile defense is not going to be a threat to China, and that it's an area in which he thinks there is an opportunity for us to find common ground with China, because weapons of mass destruction and weapons -- missiles can also be a threat to China as well as to the United States. Q: Is that the context of the comment about "nothing we do is a threat to you," or is that in relationship to sales in Taiwan? Senior Administration Official: That is -- there was some of that. "Nothing we do is a threat to you" was part of the overall discussion of bilateral relations, and not specifically related to Taiwan. Q: What was the Vice Premier's response to that? Senior Administration Official: He listened politely and carefully, and made no expression one way or the other. Q: Does there appear to be any better understanding on national missile defense now? Senior Administration Official: I wouldn't go that far. I wouldn't -- you'd have to ask his side if they felt that. Q: The administration has said China has some leverage in terms of how it behaves between now and the April Taiwan deal. Did this meeting yield anything that could influence the administration in either way on the Aegis cruiser issue? Senior Administration Official: No. I'm not sure I understand the -- could you rephrase that again? Q: The administration has said that Beijing has some political leverage in terms of its -- Senior Administration Official: Yes -- there was nothing, no, there was no discussion. Q: Let me just go back on another subject, on the good relations. Before the meeting the President also said that it would be a heck of a lot easier to have good relations with China if there was religious freedom. And then you reported again that he looked Mr. Qian in the eye and said we can have good relations. How do you reconcile those two points? Senior Administration Official: Well, we have to be able to talk about our differences. This is the view of the President. He's expressed it several times. They're going to have areas of agreement, areas of disagreement. And we need to -- and on those areas where we agree, we build on common ground. On areas where we disagree, we discuss them and try to work through them. Obviously, if we have major areas of disagreement, it's going to take a little while to work through them. Q: Was there any discussion or explanation of whether there are Chinese technicians in Iraq and what they're doing? Senior Administration Official: There was no discussion of that at this meeting. Q: Did the President raise with the Vice Premier concerns about whether China -- what it's doing to see if any of its companies were helping the Iraqis build up their fiber optic lines to boost up air defense systems? Senior Administration Official: That was not a specific -- there was general discussion during his meeting about those types of issues, but I don't really want to get into the details of those sort of discussions. Q: You said Iraq, the subject of Iraq, generally, was brought up. Senior Administration Official: Right. It was in the context of proliferation. Q: Can you say, though, if you received any more indication about what the Chinese have learned? They said they were going to look into it and rectify the problem. Can you say if you received anything from the Chinese about what they've learned and if they're rectifying the problem at all? Senior Administration Official: I'm not -- let me take that and get back to you. Q: How long did the meeting last, and how long had it been scheduled for? Senior Administration Official: The meeting was scheduled for an hour, and it lasted for about an hour -- maybe 55 minutes. I think 55 minutes. It started a little early and ended a little early. It was supposed to be from 4:05 p.m. to 5:05 p.m, and I think it started at about 3:55 p.m. and ended at about 4:50 p.m, is just my recollection. Q: You mentioned that he forcefully raised this issue of the family being detained. Was there any response at all as to whether this woman is going to be released or -- Senior Administration Official: That issue was raised and the question was noted and answered. Q: When the President raised the issue, was his major concern the woman's detention or the detention of the child, who is a U.S. citizen? Senior Administration Official: Both issues -- the context of that issue being raised were with respect to both of those issues. Q: On North Korea, was there any discussion of moving forward with negotiation? Was there any request by the President asking Qian to assist in helping relations -- Senior Administration Official: There was a general discussion about their perceptions of North Korea. Q: I was confused at what you said at the beginning, about the Chinese said she may have violated some law. Did he say what law? Senior Administration Official: No, he did not. The Premier replied that -- well, you should really ask them, but my recollection of it was that, she may not have been aware that she violated our law, and that, we will check it and get back to you. Q: Did they give any indication of when the investigation might be complete? Q: Was there any agreement on those perceptions on North Korea? Senior Administration Official: I think they had a general understanding, but I wouldn't say that they had complete agreement. Q: Thank you. Return to the Washington File