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CNN Live Saturday

Can the President Accomplish Everything on his Asia Trip?

Aired February 16, 2002 - 22:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: The Secretary of State Colin Powell, who's also traveling with the president, is Wolf Blitzer's guest tomorrow in "LATE EDITION." That show begins at noon Eastern time, 9:00 a.m. Pacific. Well, can the president accomplish everything that he's set out to do on this trip? For that, let's turn to our expert, CNN's senior political analyst, Bill Schneider.

Bill, thank you for joining us on this Saturday night.

BILL SCHNEIDER: Pleasure.

CALLAWAY: Let's talk about the motivation for this trip. Why now?

SCHNEIDER: Why now? Because it was a postponed trip, but what the president aims to do here is shore up the support of eastern Asia, Japan, China, South Korea for the war on terrorism. That's clearly the dominant issue in his agenda. And in particular, Japan and China, their support for the United States has been crucial in this war. They could have made a lot of trouble. China, particularly, could have made a lot of trouble with American troops now near China in central Asia. And then did not do that.

He wants to make sure they're on our side. So a lot of people around the world, this looks like a clash of civilizations between the West and the Islamic world. The president doesn't like to depict it that way, but if it does look like that, East Asia, Japan, Korea, China becomes the non-aligned world. He needs to boost their alliance and make sure they're on the western side in this war.

CALLAWAY: You know, you just mentioned it though, when it comes to China, it may not be what China's doing in the war on terrorism, but what they haven't done.

SCHNEIDER: Well, that's right. They are some problems with China, particularly exporting weapons. Sanctions have been imposed on Chinese companies because they've exported weapons to Pakistan, where they could be misused to other dangerous countries. And of course, North Korea is a major exporter of missiles and weapons of mass destruction. So that's got to be at the top of the agenda. He wants these countries' cooperation, cooperation in exports, in financial matters, in intelligence matters. Those are all very high on the president's agenda.

CALLAWAY: And on the agenda, discussion certainly of the Japanese economy.

SCHNEIDER: Absolutely. Prime Minister Koizumi in Japan was a phenomenon when I was in Japan last summer. He was tremendously popular, but his popularity has really deteriorated. His reform program has stalled. He was forced to fire his very popular foreign minister, a woman who had her own following, because she was distracting. She was so controversial, she was distracting from his reform program. So he's got -- he has a struggle on his hands.

What does he want? He wants President Bush to come to Japan and indicate that the United States and he, the President of the United States, is solidly behind the Japanese reform program. That means a lot politically in Japan. And Prime Minister Koizumi needs that show of support to get his reform program, now stalled, back on track.

CALLAWAY: You know, Bill, let's talk about Enron. Is that on the president's mind now as he heads off to Asia?

SCHNEIDER: He probably is glad to be leaving Washington...

CALLAWAY: Yes.

SCHNEIDER: ...where Enron is on everybody's mind. There are a lot of shoes left to drop. Look, Enron so far, doesn't look like a political scandal, except for one thing. How did we get campaign finance reform passed by the House last week? There was no political scandal, but yet, member of the House are so terrified that many of them got money from Enron, they wouldn't vote against campaign finance reform. It is having political repercussions.

There are some issues yet to resolved. Millions of investors in some 3,000 partnerships that are still secret in the Enron files. Could there be politicians involved in that? Did they get rich quick by their involvement with Enron? There are a lot of shoes left to drop in this scandal. And I'm sure the president is happy for the moment to be leaving it behind.

CALLAWAY: Especially in light of today's development. What about, you talk about shoes to drop, what about all of these underanswered questions? You think some of those are going to come up on this trip and all these handshaking meetings that he's going to have with Japanese officials?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think he will urge Prime Minister Koizumi to press ahead with his economic reforms. I would be mighty surprised if the prime minister of Japan wishes the same luck to the president in pushing his reforms in the Enron matter. But of course, the president does have a reform agenda, with respect to pension reforms, accounting reforms, financial disclosure, that's very important.

I would say that -- I wouldn't expect those issues to come up, except if they are asked by the American press, if there are further developments in Washington. The president clearly wants to avoid that subject. But you know, presidents have found, even when they go outside the United States, they can't avoid those kinds of domestic, political... CALLAWAY: No.

SCHNEIDER: ...controversies.

CALLAWAY: They certainly can't. And they'll be waiting on him when he comes home as well.

SCHNEIDER: Absolutely.

CALLAWAY: All right, Bill Schneider, CNN political analyst. Thank you for being with us again.

SCHNEIDER: Sure, Catherine.

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