With a month to go before he must decide whether to renew China's preferential trade status, President Clinton made no progress during a meeting Monday with a top Chinese official toward resolving differences between the two countries over human rights.
In a written statement, the White House said Clinton had reminded Deputy Prime Minister Zou Jiahua of his insistence that China do more to improve its human rights record by the June 3 deadline. But senior White House officials said later that Zou had simply reasserted Beijing's view that the United States should not interfere in its internal affairs."They sort of talked a little bit past each other," a senior White House official said after the 40-minute meeting in the Oval Office. Dee Dee Myers, the White House spokeswoman, described the session as "businesslike," but other American officials called it stiff and uncomfortable.
Administration officials said the meeting would almost certainly be the last before Clinton must decide whether and under what terms to renew China's favored trade status.