Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen (錢其琛), wrapping up a three-day trip to Washington, warned about the possible "flames of war" if Washington sells advanced weapons to Taiwan this year.
Answering questions following a speech delivered to hundreds of government officials, businessmen, think tank scholars and others, Qian used the strongest language of his Washington trip to complain about US arms sales to Taiwan.
"There is already trouble in that particular region. If weapons were sold to that region, it would be like adding fuel to the fire," he said. "There's already a spark there. If you pour oil and fuel over the spark, the spark will turn into a great flame. We don't want to see flames of war there," he said.
Qian also said that arms sales violate the "one China" principle.
"Taiwan is part of China. The mainland and Taiwan are part of `one China,' and there is only `one China' in the world," he said. "Therefore, to sell weapons to part of the territory of another sovereign state, whether the weapons are defensive or offensive, won't stand."
Qian called on Taiwan to accept the "three links" of direct transportation, trade and postal service between Taiwan and China, and chided Taiwan for "not exhibiting the courage and determination to do this."
Qian noted that even in the absence of the three links, two-way trade last year reached more than US$30 billion, and more than 3 million people from Taiwan visited China. "So we are full of confidence about the development of cross-strait relations. We hope that the Taiwan side would be bolder in opening itself up, as in this way there would be more and more exchanges," he said.
In his speech, the Chinese vice premier told his audience that the early unification of Taiwan and China is "conducive to a healthy development of our bilateral ties and to the peace of the Asia-Pacific [region] and the world at large. It will benefit both China and the US."
"Due to historical reasons, most of the ups and downs in China-US relations can be traced to the Taiwan question. How this question is handled has a direct bearing on a stable development of our relations," he told his audience.
The speech, at a luncheon hosted by the US-China Business Council, was Qian's last public function before returning home.
Since his arrival from New York on Wednesday, the trip has signaled the opening of high-level dialogue between Beijing and the new Bush administration. While arms sales to Taiwan and Washington's plans for a national missile defense system were the subject of serious disagreement during the talks, both sides made public efforts to seek, in their words, "common ground" on these and other issues.
While in New York, Qian told US media representatives that if Bush decides next month to sell four AEGIS-equipped destroyers to Taiwan, it could trigger a military response from Beijing. However, his comments in Washington were generally conciliatory and lacked the sting of those in New York.
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