United States Trade China

The Chinese government on Thursday sharply denied allegations that it has mounted a "serious and sustained" effort over the last 20 years to obtain militarily useful U.S. technology. "The allegation is groundless and irresponsible," said Zhu Bangzao, a Foreign Ministry spokesman. "We express our strong resentment over this." Zhu's statement came a day after a U.S.

A high-level U.S. delegation has extended its stay by another day in a last-ditch effort to bring China into the World Trade Organization before the start of a new round of trade talks Nov. 30 in Seattle. While the extension might ordinarily signal some new breakthrough, U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky has been decidedly blunt about how slow and inconsequential the talks have been to date.

On hearing of the big U.S.-China trade deal this week, workers at Huadu Chicken Co. fell into active discussions of their own situation, a scene replayed in thousands of offices and factories across China. Chickens eat lots of corn, and the company could now have access to American corn that's almost 20% cheaper than local varieties, so that's a plus.

The U.S. trade deficit widened to $24.4 billion as the price of foreign oil climbed to the highest level since early 1997. The deficit with China, meanwhile, reached $6.9 billion, the worst figure the U.S. has ever recorded with any country. The Commerce Department report Thursday said that the September trade deficit was 3.7% larger than a revised $23.5 billion August imbalance. But economists saw glimmers of hope in the figures.

President Clinton sought Wednesday to rev up consensus among factory workers in favor of global commerce, as his administration enters potentially pivotal negotiations with China and the opening of controversial talks to lower international trade barriers. At the same Harley-Davidson motorcycle factory here 12 years ago, a very different president, Ronald Reagan, delivered much the same message.

Supporters of China's entry into the World Trade Organization on Monday predicted congressional approval next year, but opponents of the deal vowed an all-out fight, virtually ensuring that Sino-U.S. relations will become an issue in next year's presidential and some congressional campaigns. One indication, just hours after the announcement in Beijing of an agreement between U.S.

In the fond hopes of its champions, the new U.S.-China trade accord will be far more profound than a rule book for commerce between two large nations. Some observers argued Monday that China's formal entry into the world's economic club--for which the deal paves the way--could change its behavior in far-reaching ways, by giving rise to new internal pressures for democratic reforms and by binding Beijing more tightly to an international legal system that it has long disdained.

The only way to make sense of the efforts to get China into the World Trade Organization, a major thrust of President Clinton's talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin this weekend in New Zealand, is to see China not as a single country but as a critical link to all of East Asia and thus to the global economy on which the United States depends for its prosperity. The benefits are indirect but important.

Despite widespread rage over the errant bombing of its embassy in Belgrade, China has begun to signal that it may be willing to resume talks on a sweeping trade deal with the United States. U.S. Embassy officials in Beijing have quietly relayed word to Washington that some Chinese officials were saying they expected a continuation of the talks between Robert Cassidy, a U.S. trade negotiator, and Long Yongtu, his Chinese counterpart, perhaps as early as next week, as originally scheduled.

Shaken high-technology executives braced Tuesday for a new round of restrictions on their overseas sales in the wake of a House committee report charging that lax enforcement of export controls, as well as outright espionage, had permitted China to obtain militarily valuable American know-how.