IS U.S. A DISRESPECTFUL BULLY IN TRADE CRACKDOWN ON CHINA? 
MANY CHINESE SEE IT THAT WAY, SAYS EAST-ASIAN SCHOLAR

	Trade negotiators and many others in this country see the
current showdown between the U.S. and China over trade issues as a
pure matter of economics. But it's also a matter of face, says an
expert and author who has studied and visited China for years.

	If the result of current tension is a shutdown in trade
between the two countries they both have much to lose, adds Brantly
Womack, director of the East Asia Center of the University of
Virginia's Department of Government and Foreign Affairs.

	Womack says Chinese leaders feel that their country -- which
holds about one-fifth of the world's potential consumers -- is an
important world power but is still treated as a backward nation by
U.S. leaders.

	Even before the current showdown over trade, he notes, they
felt that American leaders were hostile because of U.S. opposition
to Chinese participation in GATT and other major trade agreements.
Thus it wasn't surprising that Beijing recently complained that the
Clinton administration seems to be setting rules and then demanding
that China adhere to them, rather than negotiating in good faith.

	Womack is concerned that new Chinese leaders who don't share
the pro-trade policies of Deng Xiaoping, almost out of the picture
due to his failing health, will take an increasingly hard line. If
they do, U.S. industries such as aerospace and agriculture as well
as the oft-cited entertainment industry will suffer.

	Womack, who does political commentary for BBC World Services
and German radio networks, has served as a research associate on
contemporary Chinese social development at Beijing University, a
visiting examiner at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and as a
senior China specialist to Vietnam in a study financed by a grant
from the Luce Foundation. He is the author, co-author or editor of
six books and more than 30 articles on China and East Asia.

	You may reach him for comment at (804) 924-6690. His fax
number is (804) 924-3359, E-mail address is bw9c@virginia.edu

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February 6, 1995