Bill Clinton Has Unexpectedly Become a 'Sweet Cake'

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, June 17, 2002

Bill Clinton Has Unexpectedly Become a 'Sweet Cake'

At the invitation of two companies in Shenzhen and the US BusinessWeek, former US President Bill Clinton delivered a speech at "the WTO and China Economic Forum" on May 23, carrying off an after-tax payment of US$150,000 for his speech. It is reported that at least three more domestic firms are considering to invite Bill to give a talkshow in the near future.

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At the invitation of two companies in Shenzhen of south China and the US BusinessWeek, former US President Bill Clinton delivered a speech at "the WTO and China Economic Forum" on May 23, carrying off an after-tax payment of US$150,000 for his speech.

It is reported that at least three more domestic firms are considering to invite Bill to give a talkshow in the near future.

As a former US president in office for eight years, Clinton might have unique ingenious views on the international situation and US internal and external policies, it is irreproachable to invite him to come to China for talks. And it is logical and natural to invite him, a witness and policy-maker in relation to China-US ties, to come to China for tour and visit to meet old and new friends and to have an exchange of views.

But it is quite another matter to repeatedly invite him to come within a short space of time and pay him for the speeches.

No matter how many more wise ideas he has got, it is quite enough to invite him once to give a talk in a period of time, and his speech, however valuable, is not worth so much money for an hour.

Someone may say Clinton had made important contribution to the development of Sino-US relations, inviting him to come is an expression of the fact that the Chinese people value sentiment and will not forget old friends. This remark is only half correctly made.

When he was in office, Clinton did have done something useful to China-US ties, such as supporting China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), spurring US Congress to solve the problem in regard to normal trade relations with China, proposing the establishment of China-US constructive strategic partnership and putting forward the "three-no's policy (not supporting Taiwan independence and "two Chinas" or "one China, one Taiwan", nor supporting Taiwan's participation in the international organizations of sovereign states).

But during his term of office he had also done no small amount of things detrimental to China-US relations and harming China's interests, such as allowing Lee Teng-hui to visit the United States, creating a bad precedent for US presidents to meet with the Dalai Lama, and approving of large-scale arms sales to Taiwan. Only because he was honey-mouthed, he could easily give people a wrong impression. As president of the United States, what he defended is American interest. It would be a bit too naive if one thought that Clinton had a particular bias toward China.

Someone may say I paid him for his speech, he lavished praise on and make a name for me, just like the case of Zhou Yu who beat Huang Gai, one wanted to hit, and the other was willing to take the beating. The present question is why Clinton accepted one invitation after another with great pleasure. During his eight years in office, he had met with incessant scandals, the Lewinsky case had even made him the second US president subjected to Congress impeachment in American history. The order of general amnesty issued on the eve of his departure from office had thoroughly discredited him. In order to engage in a lawsuit, Clinton ran heavily into debt and is now in dire need of money.

An important aim for his tour round the world to give speeches is to make money to pay off his debts. This is different from the case of other US leaders who, after leaving their posts, went abroad to make compensated speeches, lobby for American companies and engage in non-governmental diplomatic activities which contain more or less a friendly mission and the nature of public good. For example, Jimmy Carter went to Cuba not for money, but for improving US-Cuba relations. The practice of rushing to get praises through Clinton and using him to put on disguised advertisements is really inadvisable because it carries a strong nature of utilitarianism.

Someone may argue that since many countries in the world spend money to invite celebrities from abroad, why can't China do the same? In fact, in most countries, including the United States, those who invite celebrities from the political and business circles to give speeches are mostly non-governmental organizations and private enterprises in their own name and at their own expenses, so in this case, no one would make carping comments on it.

Chinese invitational units are mostly local governments and State-owned companies containing more or less an official flavor and will thus easily be exploited by people with ulterior motive. It took the US Congress five years to look into the "political donation case" evoked during Clinton's campaigning for his presidency. His political opponents imposed groundless, fabricated charges on China in an attempt to smear the image of China. If Chinese local governments and State-owned companies took rush actions to invite Clinton, it would provide a handful of anti-China politicians with a new handle.

There are still more than 30 million people who have not yet solved the problem of getting enough food and clothing in China, a developing country. In China, there are still many places in need of money to spare. If some localities and companies have plenty of money in their hands, or if they want to do some publicity, it would be well if they donate the money to the 'Project Hope", to poor families or laid-off workers, in that case, the general public and the mass media would acclaim them, and they may thus achieve the aim of enhancing their reputation, the result may even be better.

Some localities and companies vie with one another to invite Clinton to come to China, the main reason for this is that they do not quite understand Clinton's related background, some do so due to the bad influence of their psychology of craving for greatness and success-to launch an activity in which if they can succeed in inviting a former US president, that would mean a show of their "ability", "achievement", "exuberant air" and "charming manner".

In our attitude toward Clinton, we welcome him to come to have a look everywhere and exchange views with his Chinese friends, but we do this not by the above-mentioned form and method.

The above article, written by Yu Fei, was carried on page 6 of Global Times, an affiliate of People's Daily, on June 10.

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