University students in Beijing peppered President Clinton today with polite but critical questions about America’s human rights record, Taiwan policy and views on China, in an exchange televised live across the vast nation. Peking University has been an incubator for political protest since its founding 100 years ago, including the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square. One student asked why the United States continues to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province. And another young man in Clinton’s audience questioned whether the United States really was intent on dominating China instead of improving ties. A student told Clinton that democracy, human rights and freedom were of great interest to both the Chinese and American peoples. Then she politely lectured the president, saying, “We should have both criticism and self-criticism,” and asking him, “Do you think that in the United States today there are also some problems?” Clinton said the United States does have problems, including racial discrimination, a legacy of slavery, and high crime rates that prevent some people from feeling free. But the president told the students he never raises the question of human rights when he’s overseas without acknowledging first that, quote, “Our country has had terrible problems in this area.”

It doesn’t appear that President Clinton will make time to meet with Chinese dissidents, despite his public debate with China’s president on human rights. National security adviser Sandy Berger says Clinton has met with a broad range of people and will continue to speak forthrightly, but he didn’t commit to any meetings. Beijing has released four dissidents who were detained in the first city Clinton visited, but a human rights group says a pro-democracy activist has been forced to leave Shanghai ahead of Clinton’s arrival there tomorrow.

Meanwhile, sales agreements signed at a ceremony in Beijing today come to nearly $2 billion. More than a billion dollars of that goes to Boeing for 27 new jets. The man in charge of Boeing’s China operation sums it up by saying, “We are pleased.”