In September, Presidents Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin, after meeting in New Zealand, declared an end to the recent deep freeze in bilateral relations following the accidental bombing, through egregious intelligence errors, of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. A next step appears to be admission of the PRC to the World Trade Organization. Decided ups and downs have followed. Tracing their course even briefly is beyond the scope of this editorial and would tax severely this writer's ability to synthesize the findings of diplomatic practitioners and scholars in the field of China studies. Hence our featured articles and commentaries offered this quarter, with more, we hope, to come in future.
China is vital to world peace.
The PRC is a major global power, one clearly to be reckoned with in the coming century.