Excerpts from FEER Interview with J

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Subject: Excerpts from FEER Interview with Jacques Chirac "Leading  Europe East"

Far Eastern Economic Review

Excerpts from FEER Interview with Jacques Chirac
"Leading Europe East"

Q:	Last month at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva,
France refused to back an EU resolution criticizing China's human-rights
record.  How do you explain this change of French attitudes towards China?

In France we are very sensitive about human-rights questions.  I am
convinced that the way the world is evolving today, each civilization, with
its own history and identity, is moving towards the recognition of a certain
number of universal values.  WE can sense this evolution everywhere, but
each country is moving forward in its own manner, at different speeds.

In Geneva, for the last few years, we have had this traditional conflict on
human rights with China which produced absolutely no results.  It was a
perfectly sterile procedure.  That's why I felt that another approach was
needed, with the focus on dialogue and discussion.  I suggested at the
Euro-Asian summit in Bangkok last year that we should move towards a more
constructive approach which would also be more effective.  And this has
happened.  China has responded favourably by announcing that it will sign
United Nations covenants on economic, social, and cultural rights.  This is
an important step for those who believe in the universal values of human
rights ....

Does Asean's planned enlargement to include Burma worry you given the
country's poor record on human rights?

By receiving Cambodia, Laos and Burma in its midst, Asean will form a
coherent bloc of 10 countries covering all of Southeast Asia.  I am
confident that the integration of these three countries in Asean will lead
to indispensable political and economic reforms at home, especially in Burma.

Far Eastern Economic Review
May 22, 1997
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