July 26, 2001; Page 6A

Analysis: China tries to soften image while maintaining grip

By Steve Friess
Special for USA TODAY

BEIJING -- Secretary of State Colin Powell will arrive Saturday in a China seemingly moving in two directions: striving to show the world it is open enough for its 2008 Olympics host duties while clamping down on exchanges of information.

The release this week of three U.S.-based scholars convicted of espionage marks a new approach by a historically stubborn Chinese government to show it can compromise and respond sensitively to American concerns, observers say.

Gao Zhan, a researcher at American University in Washington, and Li Shaomin, a Chinese-born American citizen, already are back in the USA. U.S.-based Chinese scholar Qin Guangguang, like Gao, was granted medical parole. Qin decided to remain in China.

Many view the arrests and convictions of those scholars, as well as a decision this week to shut down as many as 8,000 Internet cafes nationwide, to be an effort to cut off the flow of data that some within the leadership believe threatens the regime's stability and power. Dozens of state-run newspapers outside Beijing also were closed last month after publishing articles considered too critical of the government. At the root of the contradiction may be an impending power struggle within a government bracing for transition. Successors to outgoing President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, both of whom will have reached the retirement age of 70, will be named next year. Hardliners in the security sector apparently fear some recent reforms are creating risks, while agencies involved with foreign trade and diplomacy want to project a more moderate image.

"There are debates among the different sections about how to handle different cases, but neither sector is overwhelmingly dominant," says political science professor Zhu Feng at Peking University in Beijing. He says the next set of rulers are key because "these decisions have to be made by the very top leaders."

The moment is pivotal for a country in the throes of a dramatic economic transformation, one that is accompanied by political concerns for a Communist Party accustomed to keeping political dissent under wraps. Powell said as much before his Asia trip began: "(China) is trying to control that transformation and trying to control transforming forces that are within the society."

As a result, scholars say, awkward situations have arisen in which the security forces, focused on maintaining internal control, have taken actions that the foreign ministry must defend to the world. In the case of the scholars, China tried to appease both constituencies by convicting the trio and then releasing them on humanitarian grounds.

"If they didn't convict, it would have been loss of face for the security constituency," says Jerome Cohen, Gao's U.S. lawyer.

Protecting the image of the various factions within China often can be a motivating factor. After police beat photojournalist Stephen Shaver at last month's Three Tenors concert in Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman admitted police might have overreacted. But the spokeswoman said Shaver, who was attacked after shooting pictures of a man being detained by authorities, had only been accredited to cover events on stage.

China supporters say the West isn't giving Beijing enough credit. "Letting Gao Zhan, who was convicted of spying for Taiwan, go back to States on medical referral is really exceptional because she is not an American citizen," Peking University's Zhu says. "Releasing spies is really a signal that the Chinese side is very willing to keep Sino-U.S. relations on an upswing."

Gao's lawyer says her crime was giving a researcher articles and a book on China-Taiwan relations.

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