China will urge the United States to follow its one-China policy
and refrain from selling weapons to Taiwan during a working visit
by US Vice President Dick Cheney next week.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said at a regular news
briefing Tuesday that the Taiwan question will "no doubt" be a
topic of Cheney's talks with the Chinese leaders during his
three-day visit to Beijing beginning on next Tuesday.
"We are firmly opposed to the export of advanced weapons to
Taiwan, which violates the United States' own repeated commitments
and destroys peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits," said
Kong. "The Chinese position will be expounded during the
visit."
Kong's remarks echoed China's criticism last week when the
Pentagon approved the sale of an early-warning military radar
system to Taiwan.
The Taiwan question has always been the most important and
sensitive issue in Sino-US relations.
The timing of Cheney's visit makes the issue even more
outstanding as the results of the election in Taiwan on March 20
are being challenged.
The United States congratulated Chen on his re-election March
26, again arousing Beijing's criticism.
"The current situation across the Taiwan Straits is in a very
sensitive and special status," said Kong. "We ask that the United
States, under the current conditions, should earnestly adhere to
its commitment and follow the one-China policy and the principles
of the three Sino-US joint communiqués."
Cheney's visit has been seen by the Chinese side as a
continuation in the growth of high-level exchanges between the two
countries.
"It leads to enhanced understanding, promoting cooperation,
expanding consensus and reducing differences for China and the
United States to keep the momentum for exchanging high-level
visits," said Kong.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the United States last
December.
In another development, the spokesman said China cannot accept
that some Japanese linked its government's reduction of loans to
China with the so-called "China threat" and even the "lack of
transparency in China's military spending."
Kong said that China regards the Japanese loans as a symbol of
Japanese friendly policy towards China, and has spoken highly of
the loans' role, although China needs to repay the loans with
interest.
Thanks to the yen-loan assistance, both China and Japan have
benefited, with many Japanese enterprises entering the Chinese
market, Kong said.
The Chinese side thinks that the loans provided by the Japanese
government to China have played an active role in promoting the
Sino-Japanese ties on the basis of equality and mutual benefit,
Kong added.
After the Japanese government decided to cut the loans, the
Japanese side provided evidence such as China's robust growth and
the so-called "China threat," Kong said, stressing that China
cannot accept these "rootless and groundless" explanations, and
cannot accept Japan's connecting the loans with these kinds of
view.
"These arguments do not hold water and absolutely do not conform
to the facts," said Kong.
Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said on March 11 that Japan
plans to scale back loans to China by 20 percent to around 96.7
billion yen (US$872.1 million) in the fiscal year to March 31. The
amount is set to fall below the 100 billion yen mark for the first
time in 14 years and it is the third straight year that Japan is
cutting loans to China.
Turning to the Korean nuclear issue, the spokesman said China
has submitted the draft of a conceptual document for setting up a
working group for the six-party talks, and all sides have accepted
the draft.
Kong said that China has always kept close contacts with the
other five sides of the six-party talks on the nuclear issue of the
Korean Peninsula, namely the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
the United States, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan.
Kong said all five sides agreed with China on the draft, and the
Chinese side hopes that the working group mechanism will be
operated as soon as possible, so as to make preparations for next
round of six-party talks.
Kong said the working group will mainly deal with the specific
themes of the next round of talks.
According to the "Chairman's Statement" released at the end of
the second round of six-party talks which were held February in
Beijing, the involved parties agreed to set up a working group to
deal with technical issues and to hold the third round six-party
talks before June.
Also at yesterday's briefing, the spokesman announced that
President Romano Prodi of the European Commission will pay an
official visit to China from April 13 to 16 at the invitation of
the Chinese government, and President Vaira Vike-Freiberga of the
Republic of Latvia will pay a state visit to China from April 11 to
18 at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(Sources including China Daily and Xinhua News Agency, April 7,
2004)