PUBLIC FORUM : CLINTON'S CHINA TRIP GETS MIXED REVIEWS.

From the beginning of Bill Clinton's presidency, there has been a gradual concession of our national interests and values to the Chinese Communist government.

First there was the delinking of China's most-favored-nation status. Then came agreements not kept by China on weapons and nuclear nonproliferation.

For human rights it has been one disaster after another.

Dictators respect only strength. The moment Clinton delinked MFN from human rights, without insisting on any conditions, the pattern was set. The Chinese government knew it doesn't have to play by the rules. The human rights violations intensified. The retreat culminated with U.S. abandonment of criticism of China's dismal records in the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

The presidential visit was even more humiliating. The date of the visit was moved close to the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre. Clinton consented to appear at Tiananmen Square. Radio Free Asia reporters were barred from the trip. Dissidents were harassed.

At every step, the Chinese government disregarded U.S. concerns. Clinton did not meet any dissident and did not cause any real, visible human rights improvement by his words and deeds. As of this writing, the harassment and the detention of dissidents continue.

Beijing controls the world's largest labor camp system, holding 8 million to 10 million slaves under hellish conditions. Products from the laogai (gulag) system range from tea and hand tools to diesel engines. Many of these products end up in the United States and other western countries. Importing slave-made products is against U.S. laws.

The founding values of this great nation must be an important element of foreign policy. Business greed cannot, and must not, be the sole concern of national interests.

We affirm the principle of engagement. But how? Certainly Neville Chamberlain engaged Hitler.

The issue of Taiwan involves more than 20 million people, a vibrant economy and a growing democracy. By his unwise remarks, President Clinton may have increased the destabilization of Asia at the worst possible time.

- R. Ting Huang

Chair

Chinese Human Rights Advocates

Los Angeles

Some of those who are critical of President Clinton's trip to China are people who question the effectiveness of continuing political and economic relations with a country whose reputation - for ruthless totalitarianism and lack of regard for human rights - is less than acceptable by our terms.

The rest of those who criticize the trip simply hate Clinton and do not approve of anything he does or says, regardless of its effectiveness.

The first group makes a certain amount of sense. It has never been proved, however, that ignoring a foreign government has ever made one change its ways. We've been trying to ignore Cuba for years and yet Castro stubbornly persists.

When Ronald Reagan visited ``the Evil Empire,'' despite his own hypocritical statements that the United States doesn't deal with dictators, all that happened was that certain powers in the USSR eventually decided it might be better after all to join the world economic community.

It must be remembered that the Chinese government of Tiananmen Square infamy is now dead and gone. And while China is still no haven for free-thinking people, the new leaders are nevertheless reaching out in their own clumsy way.

I think Clinton was right in raising the level of communication by his personal visit. As for the Clinton-haters, well, they go on criticizing anything he does, and reminding us of his immoral character, without offering any real solutions.

I think they and their leaders in the Republican Party define the essence of hypocritical partisanship, but then this is a democracy. I wonder if they all remember that sometimes.

- Bob Loza

Burbank

Upon review of the many speeches and debates by President Clinton, I feel there was nothing of substance.

I am more concerned about the giveaway of Taiwan and additional secret atomic technology handed to China. How will Taiwan and other countries react if we turn our back on friends for increased trade with China and a misdirected presidential policy?

- Charles Dusheck

Chatsworth

Re ``Talking with China is better than fighting'' by Philip Wilt in Public Forum (July 9):

Wilt's letter condemning critics of Clinton's trip to China says we must not ignore history and we must stay engaged with the most populous nation in the world. The problem is that Wilt has forgotten history.

Neville Chamberlain came back from Germany saying ``We have peace in our time!'' Then World War II started. Can we trust Jiang Zemin any more than Hitler? He is a dictator, too.

Clinton's trip to China was for his own benefit, not the American people's. He wanted to blow his own horn. He did nothing for the common people in China. They still live in a dictatorship with slave labor.

Clinton sold out Taiwan to the Red Chinese. The United States pledged that we would protect the independence and sovereignty of Taiwan when we allowed Red China to join the United Nations.

- Louis Rosenberg

Canoga Park

Clinton's trip to China could only have created good will. The president's friendliness, the casual grace of his great compassion, and his shrewd compass of this world have surely provided new hope to the entire planet.

Incidentally, he also succeeded in educating Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott as to what our policy toward Taiwan has been for some 20 years. Lott's great shock at the idea of Taiwanese reunification with China only betrayed his own ignorance.

- Mary M. Morabito

Temple City

The trip to China was absolutely beneficial to Clinton personally but certainly not to the American taxpayer.

Isn't it amazing that the president of China brought up the subject of illegal Democratic fund-raising and our president neither looked startled nor commented on the touchy subject when it was his turn to respond? All I can say is that this trip was a typical Clinton scam, and it was disgusting.

- Frank G. Carlisi

Calabasas

What concerns me most about Clinton's China trip isn't what benefits or impacts it will have on either nation. What bothers me is the leader of the free world trading ideas with a totalitarian superpower.

Before we sell China on the principles of democracy, shouldn't we clean our own White House first?

- Tim Tolleson

Valencia

As Peter Kirby said (Public Forum, July 15), Clinton ``is up to something with China that we should be extremely interested in.''

The thing that worries millions of us is the possibility that what he was up to includes technology transfers that, with a close look, might prove tantamount to treason. And what he was up to patently included a betrayal of Taiwan and Tibet without any meaningful address of human rights.

- Jack Schlicht

North Hills

The only way President Clinton's trip to China could have been worth the cost is if China had kept him.

- Diane Frost

Panorama City

Accolades to President Clinton for his trip to China. I heartily agree with his efforts to improve relations with that mammoth, soon-to-be-super power.

It is better to have a dialogue with an open and friendly China than to confront an unfriendly and hostile China. Also, it's prudent and far less expensive to have China as a friend than as an enemy. We need another Cold War like the plague.

- Monroe Leung

Los Angeles

When news of a Chinese contribution to the Clinton re-election became public knowledge, one had to wonder what the quid pro quo was going to be. Then it was reported that Clinton had approved the sale of technology used in nuclear weapons delivery systems to the People's Republic of China. Nothing I have seen, heard or read of Clinton's China trip has suggested to me that he is anything but a politician who seems to know how to stay bought and doesn't much care who the purchaser is.

- John McFadyen

Canoga Park