May New Sino-US Ties Be Forged ����-- Notes to Recall Chinese NPC Delegates' Visit to Washington ����-- By People's Daily Residential Reporters Ma Shikun and Zhang Yong in USA ���� At the investigation of the US House of Representatives, a Chinese NPC delegation went on a visit to Washington on October 11-16. This is a visit ever made by a Chinese NPC delegation to the US in the last ten years. "It is a visit of great importance. It has deepened mutual understanding, enhanced our friendship. It has created favorable conditions for further developing mutual exchanges in the future", Zeng Jianhui, head of the Chinese NPC delegation and director of the NPC Foreign Affairs Committee, told a briefing. ���� China and the US both have attached great importance to the visit. The Chinese NPC delegation is formed of 9 leading members, directors and directors from six NPC functionary committees in the fields of foreign affairs, legislation, ethnic affairs, finance, education, science, public health and overseas Chinese affairs. A group was also specially formed of responsible personages and senior congressmen on the US side. A busy practical agenda was arranged. The US side briefed its Chinese counterpart its congressional system while the Chinese side made known to its US counterpart China's NPC system and its political economic situation and its law construction and grassroots election. Four rounds of talks were conducted on problems of Sino-US relations, developing economic and trade exchanges and problems relating to regional security. The Chinese NPC delegates had met with over 30 of US senators and M.H.R. and paid a call on the US Senate leader Thurmond Storm. The Chinese NPC delegates also went into extensive contacts with ranking officials from the While House and the US State and Defense Departments in addition to personages from US industrial and academic circles and those of journalism. Candid talks had been held in a friendly atmosphere. ���� The topic of talks had been centered on the problem of Sino-US relationship. A view shared by the two sides is that that Sino-US relationship is an important sensitive problem and that the legislature bodies of the two countries should do more work towards the end of achieving an improved relationship between China and the US. Since this year began, the US parliament has dished out or has adopted over 70 bills or motions directed against China. The problems involve mainly the Taiwan issue and the problem of human rights. The Chinese side candidly pointed out that those acts or motions contradict with facts and are totally false charges in flagrant interference in China's internal affairs. A fact is that they have harmed the feeling of the Chinese people detrimental to developing relations between the two countries. This view has also been shared by a number of US M.H.R who hold that those motions are not well founded on facts. Many US M.H.R. lack knowledge about China. The Chinese side hopes that more US congressmen would come to have a look at things in China. The US congressmen were told by their Chinese counterparts that they would be provided with various chances for them to know and look at China. ���� Big controversies had been raised over the human rights problem. The Chinese NPC delegates told their US counterparts that the Chinese people have achieved considerable progress in their human rights cause which is now at a time of the finest known to the Chinese human rights history. Some people in the US alleged that China encroached on people's human rights but in actuality China's human rights situation is not in the least in a deplorable state as it is in the US. Things in some areas are even better than the US. As to some charges on China's jail system, the Chinese NPC delegates enumerated many facts to prove their point. Take for example, the US boosts a high rate of crimes and people's personal safety is endangered. In the jails of the US there are as many as 1.40 million of criminals, with a greater absolute number over China. Of every 100,000 people in China, merely 140 are criminals in jail. But in contrast to these are 565 criminals in the US, 5.5 times over China. Humanitarian management is practiced in Chinese jails in which the criminals are wanted to be reformed and turn over a new leaf. Criminals returning to their old trade in China are placed merely at a 6% - 8% against a 40% in the US. ���� As to the so-called human rights abuses in Tibet and destruction of Tibetan culture, the Chinese NPC delegates pointed out that Tibet is a place that has experienced the fastest improvement in its human rights situation. During the days under the dark rule of Dalai Lama, a cruel serfdom was practiced, under which 90% of people were serfs for whom there were no human rights to speak of. Since peaceful liberation of their homeland the Tibetan people have become masters of their own, with regional autonomy practiced. With great support given by the Central Government and other areas of China Tibet has achieved a greater economic growth rate than the national average. Meanwhile, Tibetan culture has developed at an unprecedented flourishing time; people have come to enjoy great democratic rights unknown in Tibetan history. Jiangcun Luobu, deputy director of the Chinese NPC Nationalities Committee, told his US counterparts that when they should come on a visit to China he would like to be in their company to go to Tibet, to which the US congressmen warmly responded. ���� Recently, the US parliament is holding a debate on the "Taiwan Security Enforcement Act" dished up by a few congressmen. The Chinese NPC delegates pointed out that the act flagrantly advocated for further sophisticated arms sales to Taiwan and even wants to set up direct military ties with Taiwan. This is in gross violation of the three joint communiques published by the two countries and an attempt to further interfere in the internal affairs of China and to prevent its national unification. If the act should be adopted in the US it would whip up the flame of "Taiwan independence", undermine the cross-Straits relations of China, create tension and undermine regional peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. As a consequence of this, it will exert a destructive effect on Sino-US relations. So the US congressmen are hoped as politicians proceeding from upholding favorable US-China relations to properly handle the Taiwan problem and try all their possible to prevent the adoption of the act. A similar view has also been shared of this by a number of US Congressmen. ���� A fact to be stressed is that China and the US share extensive strategic interest and the common ground for developing extensive cooperation. A healthy stable development of Sino-US relations is in the interest of the Chinese and the US peoples and other peoples throughout the world. The two countries have no reason to be two forces of hostility. Some US congressmen voiced that "we want peaceful mutually beneficial US-China relationship". Speaking in high praise of China's great achievements made, some US congressmen even said that "to go into wide contacts with and develop relations with a strong China is much far better than a weak one". The Chinese NPC delegates and their US counterparts both hold that for a different national situation there is nothing surprising for differences found between the two countries. The essential thing lies in an enhancement of mutual understanding, with mutual respect extended to each other, and carrying out friendly dialogue on an equal footing, with a narrowing down of differences between them. The parliaments of the two countries can and should play an important role in promoting a sound development of Sino-US relations. The two sides indicate that the Chinese NPC delegates' visit to the US is a good beginning in improving Sino-US relations, hoping that new bilateral exchanges be duly developed in the future between the two countries of China and the US. Opinion 1999-10-21 Page6 Full Story in Chinese