Chinese Dissident Fang Lizhi
Q. Tonight, in an interview to be broadcast in the United States, Fang Lizhi, the recently released Chinese dissident, says you owe him a dinner. He couldn't make it to the one you threw in Beijing, and he would like to be invited to the White House for dinner. Would you do that? I have a followup.
The President. Well, he's here in this country. I thought he wanted to stay out of the public eye. I thought he himself said so. So, you've got a little different information than that. We'll just defer the rest of your question. What's your followup?
Human Rights
Q. If I can follow up: If you do meet him, he is going to complain that you have a double standard for human rights -- that you have one standard for the Soviet Union where you complain about human rights violations -- or have in the past, at least pre-Gorbachev -- and that you don't complain so much about human rights violations -- you're not as tough with the Chinese. He complains about sending Brent Scowcroft [Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs] and Larry Eagleburger [Deputy Secretary of State], et cetera. What would you say to him?
The President. I'd say that he's wrong. He's got a little time warp here because we spoke out at the NATO meeting. Indeed, I think we took the lead at a meeting in Europe -- I guess it was the G - 7 meeting, not NATO -- where we took the lead in expressing our joint indignation in terms of the abuses of human rights at Tiananmen Square. We've kept certain sanctions on China. I am heartened that Fang Lizhi is free and free now to say what's on his mind like this. So, I would say that if he feels that way he's simply not expressing the facts as they are. I don't agree with that. I notice some of my critics in the United States Congress say that, and I think they're just as wrong as they can be.
Original source: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=18659
