Except for the North Korean border

Today, having completed his visit to South Korea, President Bush arrives in Beijing to mark a significant date in the history of US-China relations - exactly 30 years ago, on February 21, 1972, President Nixon's historic visit to China began, which turned the United States and China from adversaries into allies.

Early in his presidential career, George W. Bush said that China was not a “strategic partner,” as President Bill Clinton believed, but a “strategic competitor.” But since then, relations between Beijing and Washington have improved markedly. Today President Bush flies to Beijing. Exactly 30 years ago, President Richard Nixon arrived in the Chinese capital on a historic visit. President Nixon managed to sign the Shanghai Communiqué in the PRC, confirming the intentions of the United States and the PRC to develop trade, diplomatic and “interpersonal” contacts. It is difficult to say how the current visit of President Bush will affect US-Chinese relations, but the Chinese side has prepared for it very carefully.
Chinese authorities expelled from Beijing dozens of followers of the Falun Gong movement, who are in the habit of staging protests in Tiananmen Square. The Chinese press tried to focus only on the positive aspects in Sino-American relations, not remembering the spy scandals, the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and the collision of a Chinese fighter with an American reconnaissance plane in the skies off Hainan Island. And, deviating from strict rules, the Chinese promised to conduct a live television broadcast of a joint press conference between the leaders of the PRC and the United States and President Bush's speech to students at Peking University.
Just yesterday in Seoul, President Bush said he intends to continue the conversation with Chinese President Jiang Zemin about religious freedoms that began during their meeting at the ASEAN summit in Shanghai last fall. Mr. Bush expressed the hope that Jiang Zemin, as "the president of a great country, will understand the importance of religion in the life of every person" and perhaps ease repression against religious denominations such as Catholicism that are not controlled by the state.
However, in Seoul, President Bush was mainly concerned with Korean problems, which he discussed yesterday with ROK President Kim Dae-jong. During the talks, George W. Bush said he supported South Korea's "warmth of the sun" policy, chiding North Korea for failing to understand its spirit. He expressed bewilderment at Pyongyang's silence in response to proposals from Seoul and Washington to begin negotiations on disarmament. And at the same time he promised not to attack the DPRK, despite concerns about weapons of mass destruction being developed there. Kim Dae-jung and George W. Bush agreed that negotiations with North Korea should be conducted without preconditions - Pyongyang had previously refused negotiations because Washington demanded the withdrawal of North Korean troops from the border.
By the way, it was to the border with the DPRK that Presidents Bush and Kim Dae-jung went from Seoul, where two thousand demonstrators burned an American flag and a portrait of the US President with the caption “Bush is the axis of evil.” But at the border, the American president was greeted by veterans of the Korean War with banners reading “Bush – Defender of Freedom.” Asked what he thought as he looked out over North Korean territory from a camouflaged observation post, a camouflage-clad President Bush replied curtly: "We're ready."

ANDREY Kommersant-IVANOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 31 dated 02.21.2002, p. 10

President Bush has crossed all boundaries