Pacific region's natural resources. As such, it would embody what the president has called "creative responsibility sharing," meaning that each government should act commensurate with its resources and capabilities. All our economies have benefited from the world trading system and all should act commensurate with their resources and capabilities to help strengthen
Second, any Pacific-wide institution must be an inclusive entity that expands trade and investment. It must help, not hinder, already existing efforts, such as the Uruguay Round of GATT, the OECD, or a regional group, such as ASEAN. It should be based on a commitment by market economies to facilitate the free flow of goods, services, capital, technology and ideas.
Third, a pan-Pacific entity should recognize the diversity of social and economic systems and differing levels of development in the region. At the same time, we should recognize that private initiative and free market policies offer the best route for individual opportunity and higher living standards.
Today, Minister Mitsuzuka and I talked about the possibility of such a new entity. And I will be discussing how we can create this new mechanism when I see Prime Minister Hawke this week and our ASEAN friends next week. If a consensus can be reached, we should support the prime minister's call for a ministerial meeting this fall as a first step toward developing such a new Pacific institution.
Constructive Relations with China
Full American engagement, a global partnership with Japan and a new political mechanism for Pacific economic cooperation are critical pieces in the puzzle of Asia's future. But that future will be incomplete without China. And today, more than ever, China casts a long shadow over the Pacific.
China had made great economic strides. Per capital income doubled in a decade. An open window to Western trade, technology and investment was an essential part of reform. То sum it up, if I can, China had decided to join in regional progress rather than remain isolated from it.
History shows, however, that economic and political reform are but two sides of the same coin. Now it has become all too evident that the pace of political change in China did not match the aspirations of the Chinese people.
The president has condemned in the strongest terms the brutal events of this past month. We and other nations have suspended business as usual. But we and the rest of the world must not let our revulsion at this repression blind us
repression blind us to the pressures for reform.
China has suffered a tragic setback but the story is not over. As the president said, "the process of democratization in communist countries will not be a smooth one and we must react to setbacks in a way that stimulates rather than stifles progress." #1
That is why we have acted in a measured way. The hasty dismantling of a constructive U.S.-Chinese relationship built up so carefully over two decades would serve neither our interests nor those of the Chinese people. Above all, it would not help those aspirations for democracy that were so obvious in the millions who marched to support the students in Tiananmen Square.
Having said that, let me be clear: the U.S. government and its people will stand for the democratic values we hold dear. China's current leadership may have cleared the square. They cannot clear the conscience. China's rendezvous with freedom, like its rendezvous with the advancing nations of the Pacific, cannot be long delayed. We will be there to help when the day follows the night.
Conflict in the Pacific
Finally, we and the entire region must deal with the remaining major conflicts that threaten peace: the Korean Peninsula and Indochina.
I must note with regret that the North Korean regime has yet to abandon its self-imposed isolation or its pressure tactics intended to destabilize the Republic of Korea. We will continue to probe for hints of progress in reducing tensions between North and South, looking for signs of a willingness to engage in greater glasnost and military transparency. Our policy is to facilitate reconciliation
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