To: AllPolitics
From: Steve Hurst/CNN
In: Washington
Posted: 2-22-97

Subject: Albright Lowers Her Profile

Facing a dicey journey to China on Monday, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright lowered what has been her extraordinarily high public profile during a one-day stop in the Japanese capital.

In her only public appearance, Albright and Japanese Foreign Minister Ikeda made bland diplomatic statements and refused to answer questions.

This marks the eighth stop for Albright on a whirlwind globe circling first trip abroad as secretary of state. And until Sunday Albright has been at pains to talk in public about her mission.

Albright was obviously taking a lesson from her predecessor, Warren Christopher, who engaged in tough public discussion of China's abysmal human rights record as he traveled toward Beijing in March 1994. The Chinese responded by making Christopher's visit extremely unpleasant and unproductive.

Albright's trip is complicated by the death of Deng Xiaoping, whose private funeral on Tuesday caused her to cut the Chinese visit short by one day.

China will be a focus of U.S. foreign policy in the coming years as the Asian giant continues to make extraordinary economic strides, to the point where the U.S. trade deficit with Beijing soon may exceed the big trade imbalance with Japan...a constant irritant in relations with both capitals which conduct highly restrictive trade with Washington.