[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
[June 24, 1998]
[Pages 1048-1050]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Community at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, 
Alaska
June 24, 1998

    Thank you very much. Let me begin by thanking all of you for your 
service and for giving Hillary and me and our entire delegation--
including Secretaries Albright, 
Rubin and Daley, and my Chief of Staff, Mr. Bowles, and National Security Adviser, Mr. Berger--all of

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us feel so welcome--and for welcoming this very distinguished delegation 
of Senators and Members of the House of Representatives as we embark on 
this trip to China.
    And thank you for our service here, and thank you for bringing all 
the children. I always look forward to these stops at Elmendorf. You 
know, I couldn't go to China without stopping at Elmendorf--literally, 
of course. [Laughter] But I don't want to anymore.
    Of all the times I've been here, I've seen so many people I've had a 
chance to express personal thanks--I've never come here a single time 
and met with our service families that I haven't met at least one 
person, and usually more than one, whom I knew in my previous life when 
I was Governor of Arkansas, or whom I had met traveling around the 
country in their previous service at another base. So for all of that, I 
thank you.
    I'd like to thank Colonel Gration 
and you, General McCloud, for your 
distinguished remarks here and your service. General Simpson, thank you. I thank the members of the 3d Wing, 
the men and women of the Air Force, the Army, the Navy, the Marines, the 
Coast Guard, and the National Guard, all of whom make up the Alaska 
Command.
    Tomorrow Hillary and I and our party will arrive in Xi'an for the 
first state visit to China, as Congressman Hamilton said, by an American President this decade. The American 
people are taking a special interest in this trip, just as they did when 
President Nixon first went to China a quarter century ago. I thought it 
would be important for me to spend a few moments speaking to you, who 
give so much to the security of our country every day, about why I am 
going.
    Let's start with some basic facts. China is the world's most 
populous nation. It is growing by the size of our total population every 
20 years. It borders more than one dozen countries in one of the most 
challenging regions on Earth. Its economy has grown an average of 10 
percent every year for the past 20 years. It has a large military, a 
permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, sophisticated 
industrial and technological capabilities. Soon, it will overtake the 
United States as the world's largest emitter of the greenhouse gases 
that are doing so much to warm our planet.
    Clearly, the policies China chooses to pursue and the relationship 
between the United States and China will have a huge impact on your 
lives and the lives of your children and your grandchildren in the 21st 
century.
    Of course, our engagement with China does not mean we embrace 
everything that China does; nor does it mean, parenthetically, that they 
agree with everything we do. We have chosen a course that is both 
pragmatic and principled, expanding cooperation while dealing directly 
with our differences, especially over human rights. This policy is the 
best way to advance our national interests, as results clearly show.
    Just consider two areas vital to our security: promoting stability 
in Asia and stemming the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Better 
than anyone, you know how important the Asia-Pacific region is to our 
country's future. We've fought three wars in Asia in this century. Even 
in a recession, its economies still are major exports for our products. 
Five of our States touch the Pacific. Millions of Americans trace their 
roots to the Asia-Pacific region. We are an Asia-Pacific nation.
    We keep about 100,000 troops in Asia, not directed against any 
adversary but to maintain and enhance stability in a region that is 
going through very profound change. Now, I ask you to ask yourselves: 
How can we better maintain stability in Asia, by working with China or 
without it?
    On the Korean Peninsula, where nearly 40,000 United States soldiers 
patrol the cold war's last militarized fault line, China has worked with 
us to advance peace talks and to support our successful effort to freeze 
North Korea's nuclear program. When India and Pakistan bucked the tide 
of history and tested nuclear explosives recently, China helped to forge 
a common strategy, working with us, designed to move India and Pakistan 
away from a dangerous arms race. And China's economy today serves as a 
firebreak in the Asian financial crisis. That's good for Wall Street, 
but it's good for Main Street America, too.
    You all know how important our efforts are to stop the spread of 
nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. China will either be part of 
the problem or part of the solution. In the past, China has been a major 
exporter of sophisticated technologies. But over the last decade, China 
has joined and complied with most of the major arms control regimes, 
including the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, 
the Comprehensive Nuclear

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Test Ban Treaty, and it has agreed to abide by most of the provisions of 
the Missile Technology Control Regime.
    Over the past few years, it has also pledged to stop assistance to 
Iran for its nuclear program, to terminate its assistance to 
unsafeguarded nuclear facilities such as those in Pakistan, to sell no 
more antiship missiles to Iran. Each of these steps makes the world 
safer and makes America safer. It was in no small measure the product of 
our engagement.
    In many other areas that matter to the American people, working with 
China is making a difference, too, fighting international crime and drug 
trafficking, protecting the environment, working on scientific research. 
And if we keep doing it, we can accomplish a great deal more.
    When dealing with our differences, also, I believe, dealing face-to-
face is the best way to advance our ideals and our values. Over time, 
the more we bring China into the world, the more the world will bring 
freedom to China. When it comes to human rights, we should deal 
respectfully but directly with the Chinese. That's more effective than 
trying to push them in a corner. I will press ahead on human rights in 
China with one goal in mind, and only one: making a difference.
    That's what all of you here in the Alaska Command are doing for 
America, making a difference. The reach of this command is truly 
remarkable, flying missions far and wide in your F-15's, AWACS, C-130 
airlifters: patrolling the skies below the Korean DMZ, facing threats in 
the Persian Gulf, helping democracy make a new start in Haiti, running 
counternarcotics operations out of Panama, training with Canadian forces 
in the Arctic, conducting oilspill exercises with Russia and Japan, and 
of course, working with the Chinese through the military-to-military 
exchange program you host. And I understand another group of Chinese 
officers will be here just next month.
    Wherever your country calls, you are there. Whenever your country 
needs you, you deliver. So again let me say to all of you, to those of 
you in uniform and to your families, your country thanks you, and I 
thank you.
    Last week, the summer solstice touched Elmendorf and you had 20 
hours of daylight. Hillary said she was glad to be here in the middle of 
the afternoon; we could have come in the middle of the night and still 
had daylight at this time of year. [Laughter] By December you'll be all 
the way down to 6 hours of light a day. But in every season, day and 
night, thanks to you the bright light of freedom burns here. It 
illuminates every corner of our planet. So no matter how cold or dark it 
gets, never forget that your fellow Americans know you are burning 
freedom's flame, and we are very, very grateful.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 7:09 p.m. in Hangar One. In his remarks, he 
referred to Col. Jonathan Scott Gration, USAF, Commander, 3d Wing; Lt. 
Gen. David J. McCloud, USAF, Commander, Alaskan Command and 11th Air 
Force; and Maj. Gen. Kenneth W. Simpson, USA, Commander, U.S. Army 
Alaskan Command.