DATE: Wednesday, October 29, 1997           TAG: 9710290017

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   58 lines

SINO-AMERICAN SUMMIT TRUST MUST BE EARNED

The Clinton administration's policy of ``pragmatic engagement'' toward China is an arms-length two-step that should become no cosier without tangible proof - still lacking - that our newest dancing partner is worthy of trust.

When Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrives at the Oval Office today , civility and mutual desire for interaction cannot blind American officials to the continued political repression in his country, to the enormity of our ongoing trade imbalance, or to the security threat that China might someday pose to the United States.

Even as China revolutionizes itself economically, the absence of political and religious freedom is a stain that cannot be glossed over by the patina of financial success.

And while China may have neither the military might nor the internal cohesion to aggressively seek regional dominance of East Asia today, the prospect remains a sobering curb to normalized American-Chinese relations.

The operative contract between the Chinese people and their government in the wake of the crushing of pro-democracy forces at Tiananmen Square in 1989 has been: ``You let us get rich, and we'll let you govern,'' says a disaffected Chinese journalist quoted in The Washington Post.

One challenge for American foreign policy regarding China is to make sure that similar thinking does not quietly come to shape our own relationship with this awakening giant.

With 1.2 billion Chinese increasingly energized by the world's fastest growing economy, the United States can't help but regard the huge Chinese market as appetizing. And we naturally prefer engaged discussion to overt hostility. Nor can we expect to dictate the terms by which China gradually opens the door to a market economy and, hopefully, loosens the reins of repression on its people.

But none of those caveats mean that we can afford to turn a blind eye to disturbing Chinese behavior. Clearly, an enormous transition is going on within China. Visitors say there has been a dramatic increase in western and Japanese influence on the economy, and an accompanying relaxation of cultural restraints, in the eight years since Tiananmen Square.

One benefit of Jiang's visit will be an updated focus by ordinary Americans on the progress and continued problems in the world's most populous land.

But intriguing as the changes may be, they do not outweigh remaining obstacles: internal restrictions on freedom of expression and religion, China's willingness to supply armaments to some of the world's most dangerous regimes, the mounting U.S. trade deficit and the appalling treatment of Tibet, among them.

Talk is usually preferable to stone-cold silence. But talk alone should not be mistaken as progress. The gulf between the United States and China will not be bridged by words but by the as-yet unrealized proof that mutual trust is deserved.

China talks and acts as if it wants to join the world's trade and security arrangements, but it breaks pacts it has solemnly agreed to - those regarding weapons exports and the piracy of intellectual property, for instance.

Until China shows by deeds that its word can be trusted, wary American officials should draw no closer than a distant arm's length.

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