A US envoy left China yesterday after a fruitless bid to win support for President George W. Bush's missile defense plans and with scathing accusations of anti-China "provocations" ringing in his ears.
The Bush administration decision to let President Chen Shui-bian (
"Allowing Chen to stay in the US and meet US lawmakers is the latest example in a growing list of US provocations directed at China," the Communist Party paper said in an editorial.
Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said in a departure statement that his talks on Tuesday were "constructive," but implied -- as the Chinese Foreign Ministry had made plain -- there was no meeting of minds.
"Although we clearly still have differences of opinion, our consultations on this subject were constructive and constitute a good beginning to what both sides agreed would be a continuing dialogue on these important security issues," Kelly said. "I stressed that our plans for a missile defense system would not be a threat to China," he added, "rather, our approaches are intended to defend against threats or attacks from rogue states as well as from accidental or unauthorized launches."
But the Chinese Foreign Ministry made clear that nothing Kelly said to the Chinese team, which included top disarmament diplomat Sha Zukang (
"China's constant position is unchanged," Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi (孫玉璽) told a news conference on Tuesday before Kelly's talks were over.
Sun made clear China was not prepared to soften its opposition to a National Missile Defense scheme and a Theater Missile Defense (TMD), proposed to protect allies such as Japan or US troops in northeast Asia.
He said China was "more opposed to TMD" because it would strengthen US military alliances in Asia beyond legitimate defense needs -- a reference to US-Japan security ties and joint studies of missile defenses.
"We more strongly oppose calls by some people to involve Taiwan in TMD, which would violate China's sovereignty," he said.
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