Rubin To Pitch Boeing Planes During Visit To China $6 Billion In Aircraft Orders At Stake In Lobbying Campaign

Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin will encourage the Chinese to place a large order for Boeing aircraft when he meets with government officials in Beijing next week.

“There is an effort pending by Boeing to engage in a large transaction with China,” Rubin told a news conference here Thursday. “I do expect to be discussing that in China.”

Boeing officials have mounted an intense lobbying campaign in Washington, D.C., including meetings with Rubin, Commerce Secretary William Daley and Sandy Berger, President Clinton’s national security adviser.

At stake is $6 billion in aircraft orders from Chinese airlines that the Beijing government has yet to approve. In recent months, Chinese leaders have ordered jetliners from Europe’s Airbus Industrie to show their displeasure with the Clinton administration’s criticism of China’s human rights and other policies.

This isn’t the first time the Clinton administration has gone to bat for Boeing. The late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and former Transportation Secretary Federico Pena lobbied Saudi Arabia to buy jetliners from Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. Clinton made a telephone call to Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd to encourage the purchase.

“What I intend to do is carry our view to China about what an enormously strong interest we have in Boeing having an opportunity to engage in this transaction with China,” Rubin said. “We’ll see what the discussions bring.”

Boeing officials declined to comment on Rubin’s remarks.

Rubin is going to China just before next month’s summit in Washington, D.C., between Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Chinese officials have used state visits in the past to announce major business deals. In May, Beijing announced a $1.5 billion order for 30 Airbus jets when French President Jacques Chirac’s visited China. Last year, the Chinese placed a similar order with Airbus when Chinese Premier Li Peng visited Paris.