Connie Mack: “I traveled to China this past March to address Hong Kong reversion issues, and returned concerned about United…”

“I traveled to China this past March to address Hong Kong reversion issues, and returned concerned about United States-China relations. My concern grew from what I perceived as the distance between the shared humanity of American and Chinese people, and the distrust of people expressed by the autocratic Government of the People's Republic of China. My two issues with this summit are these: First, we know what President Jiang gets from this visit; we do not know what President Clinton will receive in return for the American people. Second, unfortunately, it seems that the bar has been lowered--the administration has lowered expectations for the summit--in order to more easily achieve the appearance of a successful summit. If the United States abandons realistic and important summit deliverables until a possible 1998 Clinton visit to Beijing, United States values today will be sacrificed for political gain tomorrow.”