LOS ANGELES; America’s complex engagement with China defies flat conclusions and bright lines. The two nations connect and collide on so many different fronts that the relationship is never moving solely in one direction. Almost always, it is getting better and worse, simultaneously.

With so much at stake, the United States cannot afford the luxury of allowing any single issue to dominate its relations with China. That principle proved a good compass in the 1990s, when China critics repeatedly sought to end normal trading relations with Beijing because of its domestic repression. Though conflicted, Congress annually rejected the drive because it meant, in effect, sublimating all its other economic and political interests in China to its justifiable concern about human rights.

The same principle of balance ought to apply now. As President Bush prepares to visit China later this week, it may be tempting to elevate Chinese support for the war against terror - and tolerance of Bush’s harder line against North Korea - above all other goals. But that would be a mistake, as Bush and his team appear to recognize.

China’s support for the struggle against terror is refreshing. China has taken some steps to reduce tension in the run-up to Bush’s visit. As always, though, that is a relative measure: Is it a signal of progress that China recently agreed to release a Hong Kong man accused of smuggling unapproved Bibles, or a testament to the problem that he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in the first place? And the overall trend line remains dispiriting.

It was in America’s interest for China to gain admission to the World Trade Organization last year. During the 1990s, the annual congressional debate on China’s trading status provided activists both a forum to publicize its record and a lever to push for change. The United States, though, permanently granted China normal trading privileges when it entered the WTO, ending these annual debates.

Expanding freedom in China will not ever be easy. Any progress will demand not only persistence but creativity. In a diplomatic jujitsu, Jendrzejczyk says the United States might find leverage in China’s entry into the WTO, the same development that’s eliminated the threat of unilateral US trade sanctions. To join the WTO club, China has agreed to build a sturdier legal structure for business transactions.

The picture, as always, isn’t entirely bleak. China played a constructive role in defusing the India-Pakistan standoff. Beijing has made some conciliatory noises lately toward Taiwan. A senior Bush administration official said last week that China has made “some small progress” on proliferation. And China’s leaders mostly bit their lips when listening devices were found in a US-built plane delivered for Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

With China, though, progress always comes as the conjoined twin of frustration. No one is expecting many breakthroughs at this week’s meeting; the visit even seems like a bit of a sideshow as the central focus in US foreign policy (and even more so in American reporting on foreign policy) has turned toward terrorism and the Middle East.

Maybe that is for the best. Like an aging actor, America’s relationship with China does not do well in the spotlight; there is always a blemish to catch the glare. Less attention may actually give Bush more freedom to balance US interests and ideals in a relationship that constantly challenges both. —Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) Los Angeles Times.