[Shields:] Welcome back. "Beyond the Beltway": Secretary of State Colin Powell's Asian trip included his first visit to Vietnam since combat service there as a young officer. The climax was a visit to China intended to improve U.S.-Chinese relations after months of tension.
[Colin Powell, U.s. Secretary Of State:] I think we moved the ball forward. There are still some outstanding issues to be resolved and some places where we don't have full agreement.
[Shields:] References to human rights were stripped from Secretary Powell's taped speech to the Chinese people. Joining us now is CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel, who covered the Powell trip. Thanks for coming in, Andrea. Did Secretary Powell accomplish anything of real significance in China?
[Andrea Koppel, Cnn State Department Correspondent:] Well, he did; but you have to remember that the sights were set fairly low from the start of the trip, and that is that he went to China to say that the chapter, the EP-3 spy plane incident is behind us, and now we can look forward to the visit of President Bush in October, and that this is not a relationship that is going to be based solely on conflict that we actually want to find ways to work together.
[Shields:] What about the stripping, though, of all reference to human rights in the taped speech that Secretary Powell that Chinese authorities just absolutely expurgated it?
[Koppel:] Well, that was actually it was an interview that was done on Chinese Central Television...
[Shields:] Right.
[Koppel:] ... and this was they were asking him about his book, about his tour in Vietnam and what not. And, certainly, the State Department was under the impression that the entire interview would be aired. I don't necessarily think that we should be surprised that his comments on human rights were taken out of the broadcast statement, especially when you think that three years ago when President Clinton was there there was this live press conference that he held with China's president and he did address a number of human rights issues.
[Shields:] Yes, that's right. Bob?
[Novak:] Andrea, did you get the impression from the Chinese government that they wanted to improve relations too? That after all the pounding and the yelling, when they let these people that had been imprisoned on charges of espionage probably trumped up, but they had been in prison. Did you get the idea that they really wanted to lower the decibel level themselves?
[Koppel:] Absolutely. China's president, the premiere, every leader that Secretary Powell met with did everything but embrace him to their bosom. This was a very important trip for China because it wants and it needs desperately to improve its economy. And the way to do that is to have good relations with the United States. And they also want to have a very successful APEC this is that economic regional meeting that takes place every year. They're the host of it in October, which is why President Bush is going there. So they want to have had a good meeting, and they know that they need to have had a good relationship with the U.S. leading up to it.
[O'beirne:] They care so desperately, Andrea, but not enough to significantly improve the human rights situation. Are they does Beijing just sort of separate that out at though and pretend it's unrelated to the kind of relationship they want with the West?
[Koppel:] Well, they know how to handle the U.S. And they know that if you give the U.S. a couple of released dissidents ahead of a trip, that that sort of takes the air out of the argument. And that's when they did, just, literally three days before secretary Powell arrived there.
[O'beirne:] And those friendly gestures can go on forever because presumably all they need to do is snatch some other Americans off the streets, hold them for a while and then release them.
[Novak:] I don't think those were Americans, Kate.
[O'beirne:] Well, naturalized citizens, or ones who legal residents here who are none of them belonged in jail, Bob.
[Novak:] One was a green card holder.
[O'beirne:] And he they did hold her husband and son, too, who were, of course, American citizens. And none of them, of course, belonged in jail. But they could be doing these endless friendly gestures, couldn't they?
[Koppel:] Absolutely. And certainly what they're going to continue doing with the U.S. is talking about improving their human rights record and, at least the short term, that seems to have satisfied the Bush administration. Secretary Powell said that they're going to renew, they're going to re-open the human rights dialogue which had been on hold since the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade back in 1999 during the Kosovo conflict.
[Carlson:] Talking works so well for them, I don't know why the Chinese would ever change their behavior because they get away with whatever they want to get away with, and we want to keep trading with them, so it reinforces the worst behavior on their part. Reporters at the White House tend to think of Secretary Powell as the great dissenter in the administration that he's really not in favor of an isolation. He would have kept the Kyoto Treaty, ABM he's still for it; he truly wants to engage in the world. Are we at the White House not as sophisticated as those of you at the State Department where, you know, Powell is totally on board. He's not, in any way, against any of these administration policies. And I have this follow up: Why was Secretary Powell on the floor with the microphone at dinner?
[Koppel:] OK, well I'll answer that in a second. I think that it's natural and we've seen this before in previous administrations that the secretary of state as the United States' top diplomat, is the one who has to deal with all of these governments and make nice. I do think that it is common knowledge that Secretary Powell is somebody who was more reluctant than others in the administration about taking a more, what some have called, unilateralist or isolationist approach towards these various treaties. And certainly he's the one who's trying to to try sort of middle ground with the Japanese on the Kyoto warming treaty and with the Russians on the ABM Treaty. Now, to answer your other more important question...
[Shields:] The musical.
[Koppel:] When he was in Vietnam this was for the southeast Asian Regional Forum, the annual meeting. And there's a tradition that all the foreign ministers put together some sort of skits, whether it's singing and dancing, whether it's reading a poem. And Secretary Powell sang "Old El Paso" with the Japanese foreign minister, who happens to be a woman. And so he was down on the floor because he was shot and dying, and his true love, foreign minister...
[Carlson:] What a ham!
[Novak:] I can't imagine...
[Shields:] Do you remember what Warren Christopher did? No, go ahead.
[Novak:] Well, I was going to say I can't imagine John Foster Dulles doing that. Just briefly, there was a totally different mood, it seems like, in Vietnam less tension than it is in China. Relations are generally good with Vietnam, aren't they?
[Koppel:] They are. And within a couple of weeks, I think sometime in early September they're supposed to sign the Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. This is a very different period in our history, and what better way to exemplify that than the fact that you have a former U.S. soldier who served two tours of duty in Vietnam who goes back as the top U.S. diplomat that is Secretary of State Powell to improve the relationship with Vietnam?
[Shields:] Andrea Koppel, thank you so much for being with us. The gang will be back with the "Outrage of the Week." Thank you. Thanks a million.