U.S. Foreign Policy and Other Occidental Mysteries

A sampling of Pacific Rim commentary: * China “Passivity, empty talk . . . “

--Shanghai Liberation Daily, analyzing President Clinton’s foreign policy. * Taiwan “ . . . stopgap measures.”

--China Times on same subject. * Hong Kong “The U.S. withdraws its forces and (simultaneously) sends in reinforcements. There is some mystery in this.”

--New Evening Post editorial. “Not only are Mr. Clinton’s improvised, country-by-country policies often inconsistent with each other, they are internally inconsistent as well.”

--Marlowe Hood’s column in the South China Morning Post. * Thailand “The United Nations . . . (is) the diplomatic smoke screen for a clumsy superpower with a miserable track record.”

--The Bangkok Post, on Haiti’s plight. * New Zealand “Clinton’s misfortune is that actual cases are interfering with his academic exploration of foreign-policy theory. That other world leaders appear to be acting as spectators contributes to his task.”

--The New Zealand Herald, Auckland, on the dangers of American isolationism. * Australia “The (Reginald O. King beating) jury did not fail. Under great strain, it delivered justice.”

The Sydney Morning Herald, on the verdicts in the Reginald Denny case.