This is a tale of two fights. I suspect that in one of them, victory has been won and that, in the other, the U.S. has cast its lot with those who are destined to defeat. For the past several months, two struggles involving China have unfolded in western newspapers. Talks broke down in April and now President Clinton is said to be scrambling to produce a deal that both Congress and Beijing will accept.
Time grows short.
Beijing wants to call the shots in partnerships with western capitalists and is driving a difficult bargain. But it also wants admission to the World Trade Organization, and for that, it will have to have reached some agreement with Washington before Nov. 30, when the WTO is set to meet in Seattle. The pressure facing Congress is that, to bring China into the world-trade fold, it will have to surrender its annual review of the country's trade status, an opportunity members have taken in the past to link trade sanctions with human rights. On the other hand, the prospect of access to untapped telecommunications, energy and financial markets in the world's most populous country looms as powerful leverage. So Clinton may be able to pull off a deal, something aides say he wants badly to do.