There was a great deal of discussion last week about Bill Clinton's "moral authority." Then at week's end came a vivid reminder that it is not only by their personal comportment but also by their official conduct that presidents can squander their moral standing.
At their planning sessions for President Clinton's June summit in Beijing, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the Chinese foreign minister were giddily chatting about a new "strategic partnership." Meanwhile, indispensable Washington Times national security reporter Bill Gertz revealed that there are 13 Chinese nuclear missiles aimed at American cities. Gertz's revelation of the secret CIA report on the missiles, confirmed by government officials, means that the president was either lying or didn't know what he was talking about when he made his sappy announcement a year and a half ago that "there is not a single solitary nuclear missile pointed at an American child tonight, not one. Not a single one." Or maybe he was just being Clintonesque: You know, there isn't one solitary missile; it's a baker's dozen!
This, then, is how China defines "strategic partnership": We aim, you duck. And at the same time the missile story was breaking, Albright, at the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing (an appropriate venue), was bragging about how hard the administration is working to remove sanctions that "impede your ability to do business in China," including business in "satellites and nuclear cooperation." The Albright team further announced that the official ceremony greeting Clinton's arrival for the summit in late June would be held in -- yes! - Tiananmen Square, where the Butchers of Beijing crushed the students' uprising in 1989. No world as yet whether there will a side-trip during the summit to the graves of those killed in the crackdown, the better to celebrate the new "partnership" with a dance.