Beijing's obsession with preventing Taiwan from advancing toward formal independence is starting to interfere with other diplomatic endeavors, including talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis, officials and analysts say.
Chinese officials deny linkage between the Korea talks and Taiwan, which the Chinese Communist Party considers a part of China. But US officials say the Taiwan issue is increasingly hogging the agenda and influencing Chinese policy, particularly when it comes to cooperation with the US.
"The increase in Chinese focus on Taiwan has really gotten to be an obsession," said a senior US administration official.
"With issue after issue it all comes back to Taiwan ... given the fact that everything else is tied to Taiwan it would be out of the ordinary for there not to be a linkage," he said.
The Chinese leadership has cranked up its rhetoric with respect to Taiwan over the past year or so in the run-up to, and aftermath of, Taiwan's presidential election in March.
Beijing says it hopes to see Taiwan peacefully unified with China, but threatens to attack if Taiwan declares independence.
Chinese leaders are convinced that Taiwanese President Chen Sui-bian (
Last month, US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and the commander of US forces in the Pacific, Admiral Thomas Fargo, visited China separately and "all they talked about was Taiwan," said the White House official.
Some analysts believe Beijing policymakers are calibrating their position on North Korea to that of the US on Taiwan. In other words, they are asking: Why should we scratch your back if you won't scratch ours?
"Of course, the Chinese government would never say there is a link between the North Korea issue and the Taiwan issue, but this is a political fact ... China's position has changed delicately," said Shi Yinhong (
In recent months, Shi said, China's policy has subtly shifted to be more sympathetic toward North Korea in the 21-month-old standoff over its nuclear programs.
Beijing has become more supportive of North Korea's proposal to freeze its programs. Washington says that is insufficient. China is also agreeable to the idea of North Korea pursuing peaceful nuclear programs, which the US opposes.
A senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official questioned publicly the US assertion that North Korea has a secret uranium-enrichment program that set off the whole crisis in October 2001.
Finally, Shi notes, China has gone from doling out roughly equal amounts of criticism and praise to North Korea and Washington, to being clearly more critical of the US.
"Of course, we cannot find any detailed evidence to prove that these kinds of changes have some relation with China's dissatisfaction with the US over the Taiwan issue," Shi said.
"But at least the change of China's approach over Taiwan and with the US is parallel with some changes in China's position over North Korea ... they happened at the same time," Shi said.
Some analysts, however, doubt China's leadership would concretely link the two issues.
Choi Choon-heum, a senior fellow and China hand at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said the reason China could at least never admit the linkage was simple.
"Once China tries to deal with the Taiwan issue and the North Korea issue together, then the US would recognize the Taiwan issue as an international issue," he said.
"That is opposed to the Chinese assertion that the Taiwan issue is a domestic issue," he added.
The bigger strategic goals of China and the US in the North Korea crisis remained unchanged and cooperation still outweighed their differences, said Alan Romberg, a former US diplomat now with the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington.
"The fact that they do share the same major concerns regarding denuclearization of the peninsula, avoidance of war and avoidance of chaos is probably the critical glue driving them toward accommodation when differences do exist," he said.
"I'm sure there are some tactical differences and even frustrations between the US and China, but then I'm sure there are tactical differences and frustrations among all of the parties," he said.
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