Talk Central Section: discuss hot topics of the day online.

All Editorials and Op-Ed columns from this morning's Washington Post.

All editorials and commentary from Sunday's Washington Post Outlook section.

Listen to America's `Popular Forces,' Mr. Jiang

Welcome to our country, President Jiang. You have, no doubt, found it a place free with its opinions -- about you, your regime, your jailing and killing of dissenters.

Do not, Mr. President, misunderstand what the protesters you've encountered are saying. Few Americans resent China or its remarkable achievements in recent years. There is a long history here of admiration for your country. There is a natural inclination to respect what hard work and an entrepreneurial spirit have accomplished. Most of us accept that China will be a superpower someday soon.

It may surprise you that many who took to the streets against you also demonstrated against our country's policies in Vietnam. Some of them even called for recognition of your country's Communist government when it was risky to do so. They are not against China. They do not seek a new Cold War. But they are against your government.

Your opposition here cannot be dismissed as narrowly ideological. Christian conservatives oppose your country's repression of Christians, but so do liberal Christians, and so do Jews, Hindus, Muslims and atheists. Supporters of self-determination in Tibet are not confined to followers of the Dalai Lama. America's unions oppose the exploitation of prison labor by a regime that claims to act in the interests of workers.

Don't comfort yourself that "human rights activists" are some tiny minority of hotheads. Susan Allen, the wife of the governor of Thomas Jefferson's home state, spoke for Americans when she told you: "Virginia is proud that one of its sons wrote . . . that governments derive `their just powers from the consent of the governed.' " President Clinton was responding to the view of most Americans -- and to the uneasiness of many with his China policy -- when he gave you a human rights lecture Wednesday after you justified the Tiananmen Square massacre in the name of "state security."

Your opponents here are not naive. We understand the difficulties China has overcome. We know a growing Chinese economy is good for us. We know we have to live with China and engage it. The current stock market convulsions demonstrate that an unstable Asian economy is bad for the American economy. "We are linked, all of us," said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

But the fact that we're not naive makes us wonder how long we can live with the conditions and technology transfers you impose upon those who invest in your country. As Paul Blustein wrote last week in The Washington Post, many here "fear that American firms are being coerced -- in a process contrary to free-market principles -- into sacrificing good U.S. jobs, or helping to establish formidable Chinese competitors, or putting their technology at risk of being stolen."

Don't pretend that your long-term interests are secure because many American businesses give in to your government to make short-term money. American patience won't last forever.

But the conflict between you and your opponents in our streets is not, finally, about money. If your government showed signs of moving toward democracy and freedom, you could strike much better deals with us. The fear and anger your government inspires is the fear and anger inspired by any government willing to gun down its opponents. We'll deal with your government because we have to, but we can never be friendly toward a regime built on massacres and repression.

You consider your American opponents inconsistent and self-righteous, seeking to impose "Western" standards of human rights on an Asian culture with different traditions.

You're half right. We can be self-righteous, and we have been inconsistent in our support for human rights.

But this business about human rights being "relative" and your claim to represent some "Asian" view against the "Western" model of democracy are dishonest and insulting to your own people. It's the claim of a governing class not willing to give up its power, privileges and access to wealth. It's the argument of leaders who fear that their own people may have different ideas and aspirations. It's the contradiction of a government trying to build a risk-taking society without taking the risk of letting its citizens speak freely.

Your opponents here do not deny the difficulties of governing China and do not want confrontation. But do not underestimate America's "popular forces," as your ideologues call public opinion. No matter what members of our foreign policy establishment say, the popular forces in America do not trust your government and despise what it has done to those who dared raise their voices against it.

Don't be deceived by power brokers who seek gain by throwing themselves at your feet. Don't gamble that our popular forces will sell out for money. The demonstrators you saw represent many other Americans who stand with those in your country on their long march to democracy.