In 1996, the FCC created additional guidelines to
be followed. Broadcasters had to indicate the age
group the core programming was targeting, reveal
what the core programming’s significant purpose
was (education no longer being the sole purpose),
and place an E/I (educational/informational)
icon and/or a verbal announcement prior to its
airing.
Impact Although the overall effectiveness of the
Children’s Television Act remains debatable, the act
did achieve its main goal of providing programming
that was beneficial educationally, emotionally, and/
or socially to children sixteen years and younger.
The act also provided parents with the necessary
tools to help monitor their children’s television
viewing through written descriptions in television
guides and through iconic and verbal announce-
ments.
Further Reading
Minow, Newton N., and Craig L. LaMay.Abandoned
in the Wasteland: Children, Television, and the First
Amendment. New York: Hill & Wang, 1995.
Steyer, James P.The Other Parent: The Inside Stor y of the
Media’s Effect on Our Children. New York: Atria
Books, 2002.
Winn, Marie.The Plug-in Drug: Television, Computers,
and Family Life. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.
Sara Vidar
See also Advertising; Cable television; Children’s
television; Educate America Act of 1994; Education
in Canada; Education in the United States; Telecom-
munications Act of 1996; Television; TV Parental
Guidelines system; Video games.
China and the United States
Definition Diplomatic and economic relations
between China and the United States
Early in the decade, there was considerable debate over how
the United States should react to the bloody suppression of
student demonstrators in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in
- President George H. W. Bush’s conciliator y ap-
proach was severely criticized but ultimately adopted by
President Bill Clinton as well for economic considerations.
U.S. relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
reached a low point during the Third Taiwan Strait
Crisis in 1995-1996 but sufficiently recovered by 1999
when the United States and the PRC signed a key trade
agreement.
In 1990, U.S. president George H. W. Bush favored a
diplomatic approach to the People’s Republic of
China (PRC) despite the Tiananmen Square massa-
cre in 1989. Bush annually renewed the PRC’s most-
favored-nation (MFN) trading status. When Iraqi
president Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on Au-
gust 2, 1990, the PRC supported the United Nation’s
Security Council Resolution 660 condemning the
invasion and Resolution 661 imposing sanctions on
Iraq. On November 29, 1990, the PRC did not veto
but abstained on Resolution 678 authorizing mili-
tary force in ejecting Iraq from Kuwait, a major dip-
lomatic victory for the United States.
Bush even met the PRC’s hard-line premier, Li
Peng, in New York City on January 31, 1991. In turn,
the PRC cooperated with the United States on world
issues such as peace progress in Cambodia and pres-
sure on North Korea. However, after the PRC
bought twenty-four Sukhoi-27 jet fighters from Rus-
sia in March, 1992, President Bush authorized the
sale of 150 F-16 fighters to the Republic of China
(ROC, Taiwan) on September 2.
Clinton’s Initial Approach to China In January,
1993, U.S. president Bill Clinton faced three chal-
lenges regarding U.S. relations with communist
China: Chinese arms sales to countries hostile to the
United States, human rights issues, and trade prob-
lems. The PRC’s trade surplus with the United States
reached $15 billion. On May 28, Clinton renewed
the PRC’s MFN status but linked this renewal to
progress on human rights.
U.S.-PRC relations soured. On August 23, 1993,
the United States imposed sanctions on the PRC
for the sale of M-11 missiles to Pakistan. Later that
summer, U.S. warships intercepted the Chinese
freighterYin Heon charges it carried forbidden
chemicals to Iran. When no chemicals were found,
the PRC angrily denounced the United States on
September 4. Clinton met the new PRC president
Jiang Zemin in Seattle in November in a frosty atmo-
sphere.
Indicative of America’s economic interests in com-
munist China, the Clinton administration waived
the August 23 sanctions in December. A visit by U.S.
secretary of state Warren Christopher in March,
1994, failed to persuade the Chinese leadership toThe Nineties in America China and the United States 175