-Caveat Lector-
China Urges Defiance of US Bullying
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
.c The Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) -- While praising victims of NATO's bombing of the Chinese
Embassy in Belgrade as heroes, China's president accused the United States on
Thursday of seeking global dominance and urged nations worldwide to defy
American bullying and create a new just order.
The harsh words showed just how much the embassy bombing in Yugoslavia has
damaged Chinese political will for smooth U.S. relations -- particularly
since they came from President Jiang Zemin, who last year claimed credit for
engineering a rapprochement with Washington.
But in a sign China is willing to ease tensions, Jiang also agreed to speak
to President Clinton for the first time since Saturday's embassy bombing.
White House officials said they were working to arrange a telephone call
between the two leaders, although it was not clear if it could take place by
Friday.
Jiang has so far avoided speaking to Clinton. But he conveyed his willingness
to talk through the Chinese ambassador in Washington, who took a condolence
book to the White House for Clinton to sign Thursday.
At an emotional ceremony conferring the title of ``revolutionary martyr'' on
the three victims of the bombing, Jiang outright called the United States a
term China reserves for enemy countries -- ``hegemonist'' -- for the first
time in three years of improving relations.
Jiang said the United States was using its economic and technological
superiority to aggressively expand its influence, pursue ``power politics and
wantonly interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.''
Jiang, who also heads the Communist Party, hinted that public protests around
the U.S. Embassy that ended Tuesday could renew if Chinese demands for
redress were not met.
The United States and NATO must make formal apologies, thoroughly investigate
the bombing and punish those responsible, the official Xinhua News Agency
quoted him as saying. ``Otherwise the Chinese people will never let the
matter go.''
The state-sanctioned protests brought tens of thousands of Chinese into the
streets in 20 cities, saw the U.S., British and Albanian embassies stoned and
a U.S. consul's residence set on fire in the western city of Chengdu.
In Beijing's embassy district, police removed road barriers Thursday,
allowing cars and pedestrians to travel freely for the first time since the
four-day protests began Saturday. Signs that guided the tens of thousands of
protesters to the British and U.S. embassies were removed.
Fearing further unrest, paramilitary police maintained a cordon around a
two-block area near the U.S. Embassy, keeping foreign reporters and curious
onlookers well away. The embassy itself was a mess after being pelted with
rocks, bottles and paint bombs by the protesters.
A day after the victims of last Friday's embassy bombing returned to Beijing,
the communist leadership on Thursday honored the three killed, all
journalists.
``The great People's Republic of China can never be bullied,'' Jiang said,
with the rest of the leadership arrayed around him and relatives of the dead
and wounded in the audience.
The war in Yugoslavia and the embassy bombing made more countries aware of
the United States' quest for dominance, Jiang said. He appealed to them to
unite to create ``a just and rational new international order in the common
struggle against hegemonism and power politics.''
Government support for the protests -- biased media coverage, party groups
busing students in and police standing by as demonstrators rampaged -- have
drawn criticism from U.S. officials.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao assailed suggestions of government
connivance as ``unwarranted'' and called the protests acts of understandable
outrage.
``This is natural, justifiable and brooks no questioning,'' Zhu told
reporters.
``We do not condemn or condone those lawbreaking activities. I'm sure you
have seen what we have done in recent days,'' Zhu said, referring to the
tighter security imposed Tuesday.
With the protests over, U.S. officials were reassessing security plans and
beginning to repair damage to the embassy and also to the consulates in
Chengdu and the northeastern city of Shenyang, embassy spokesman Tom Cooney
said.
To aid that effort, the embassy and the two consulates will remain closed
until at least Monday and the issuing of visas for work travel or study in
the United States will be suspended indefinitely at the embassy and all four
U.S. consulates in China, Cooney said.
U.S. consulates in Guangzhou and Shanghai, which were not badly damaged
during similar protests there, will reopen Friday.
The White House also announced its nominee to become the new ambassador to
China, retired Adm. Joseph W. Prueher. If confirmed by the Senate, he would
replace Ambassador James Sasser in Beijing.
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