An Expanded But Uncertain Terrain of Human Rights Activism

The Clinton administration significantly expanded the terrain of U.S. activism on human rights, including by challenging the practices of several important U.S. friends, although it sometimes wavered in the resolve it showed in addressing their abuses.

· After years of substantial U.S. neglect of serious abuse in Indonesia and East Timor, the Clinton administration supported a U.N. resolution criticizing human rights practices in East Timor, and undertook a systematic reviewof Indonesia's labor rights practices under threat of revoking trade benefits.

o In notable contrast to the Bush administration's refusal to meet with Salman Rushdie, President Clinton granted the writer a formal audience to illustrate Washington's firm support for freedom of expression in Iran, and its continuing objection to the death sentence imposed by Iran's leaders for a novel that they deemed blasphemous. Other elements of the Clinton administration's tough policy toward Iran included opposition to World Bank loans, and an effort to deny Iran "dual-use" technology with both military and civilian applications.

· During a visit to Turkey in June, Secretary Christopher broke Washington's traditional public silence on Ankara's abysmal human rights record (apart from the State Department's annual worldwide human rights report) by announcing the goal of improving freedom of expression and eliminating torture and arbitrary killing. He promised a carrot-and-stick approach, but without the slightest human rights concession from Turkey, the administration announced an intention to deliver $336 million in aircraft and other military equipment. In October, during a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, President Clinton cited Turkey's "shining example of cultural diversity," while ignoring the severe abuses committed by the government against the Kurdish minority.

· Breaking with President George Bush's insistence on separating human rights from China's Most Favored Nation (MFN) trading status, President Clinton in June issued an executive order extending MFN unconditionally for a year but linking further extension to a series of human rights conditions. However, the conditions were troublingly elastic, and the administration refused to spell out the specific improvements that must precede renewal of MFN. This refusal left the impression that the White House might try to sell to Congress even minimal concessions from Beijing. The administration, primarily through Secretaries Christopher and Shattuck, did deliver the message that lack of "overall significant progress" by June 1994 would mean loss of MFN. But by November, when President Clinton met Jiang Zemin, the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, in Seattle, the message was more mixed. At the same time as the President reinforced the need for human rights progress, he allowed the sale of a supercomputer to China, lifting one of the few remaining sanctions imposed by the Bush administration. The Clinton administration's clear desire for enhanced trade with China risked sending a signal that Washington's threat to withdraw MFN was not serious.