President Jiang Zemin will welcome his APEC (Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation) guests, including President George Bush, to Shanghai this month with some satisfaction. Since being catapulted into power twelve years ago, he has overseen remarkable economic growth, the continuation of the political status quo and the emergence of China as a regional, soon to be global, power. Jiang has achieved everything his predecessor and mentor Deng Xiaoping asked of him.
This list of accomplishments causes considerable anxiety among Jiang’s APEC visitors. They worry about an economic giant that hoovers up every last drop of Asian-bound foreign direct investment. They are concerned about worsening human rights abuses. And they are frightened at Beijing’s growing capacity to project power into the Pacific. Hawks in Washington, many staffing the Defence Department, believe that a future military clash between China and the United States is all but inevitable.
