China remains "firmly opposed" to the Washington plan to develop a missile defence system but is ready to discuss the issue with a US mission next week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said yesterday.
"If the US side is willing to send an envoy here, we are willing to have consultations," he told a news conference.
The US State Department announced last week that a mission led by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly would visit China on May 14 and 15 as part of consultations on the missile defence plan.
Sun repeated China's opposition to the National Missile Defence (NMD) and Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) systems that would effectively abrogate the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty that bars such defences.
"As we have stated many times, we are firmly opposed to this," Sun said. "We hope the US will proceed cautiously and continue to abide by the ABM."
Sun pointed out that the ABM treaty serves as the cornerstone of global strategic balance and stability, and the TMD and NMD initiatives will definitely ruin this balance and lead to another arms race.
Sun also said that China strongly opposes the US surveillance flights near China's coast. "If they continue to conduct such flights, we will continue to make protests," he explained.
The spokesman said the interception and tailing of US spy planes by Chinese jets is "necessary and very reasonable".
He repeated China's request that the United States stop such flights.
On Japan's recent approval of a history textbook which distorts accounts of Japanese atrocities committed during World War II, Sun said: "The history textbook concocted by Japanese right-wing scholars glosses over history and contains numerous distortions."
He said the Chinese side has pointed out explicitly the falsehoods in the textbook through diplomatic channels. He called on the Japanese side to "seriously consider and deal with the solemn position and rational demands of China and its Asian neighbours" and correct its mistakes and erase the negative impact caused by the situation.
On the recent territorial tension between China and the Philippines, centred on the South China Sea, Sun claimed the two nations are still "friendly neighbours" and the disputes could be resolved through friendly consultations.
"We hope the Philippines restrain from taking any unilateral action that will further complicate the situation so as to guarantee the maintenance of friendly relations between the two countries," Sun said.
（China Daily 05/11/2001)
