China, wary about US influence in Southeast Asia, will seek in Brunei this week to strengthen ties with its southern neighbors while fending off US accusations it exports weapons of mass destruction, diplomats said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan (
The highlight of China's diplomatic overtures with ASEAN nations has been a plan to create the world's largest free-trade zone, uniting 1.7 billion people, and a preliminary framework could be ready late this year.
But Chinese officials say they are hoping for a stepped up security role for ASEAN, which suffers nagging concerns that Islamic militant groups are fostering terrorism in the region.
"We hope the Southeast Asian cooperation would move from mainly economics to be expanded to political areas, to dialogue on security and detailed discussions on anti-terrorism," Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi (
Tang also is due to hold bilateral talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is expected to broach China's sales of weapons to North Korea, Iraq and Iran, states that US President George W. Bush has labeled an "axis of evil."
The US slapped sanctions on nine Chinese firms earlier this month for transfer of arms-related material or technology to Iran. China either denies the firms were violating any agreements or says they carried out the exports without its knowledge.
China maintains it abides by all international agreements including a pledge to the US in November 2000 to halt transfers of missile technology to Pakistan and implement an export control system.
Tang also may raise Beijing's concerns over US plans to sell submarines and other weapons to Taiwan.
Beijing has simmered uncomfortably as the Bush administration vowed more than once to "do whatever it takes" to defend the nation and met with Taiwan officials in the US, breaking with former president Bill Clinton's policy of strategic ambiguity over Taiwan's diplomatic status.
Despite disagreements, the Tang-Powell meeting is expected to remain cordial. Analysts say China has been making an effort to keep ties on a warming track ahead of a visit to the US by President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) in October.
Jiang, slated to retire as China's top Communist Party leader in a leadership reshuffle due in coming months and as president next March, is eager to be remembered as the man who consolidated Sino-US relations, analysts say.
Tang will also seek stronger ties with Southeast Asia, laying the foundation for a leaders summit at the year end in Cambodia to be attended by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji (
The sudden presence of US troops on China's Central Asian borders -- and a six-month operation in the Philippines -- - after the Sept. 11 attacks alarmed Beijing, which sees the US as an unwanted houseguest in the region, diplomats said.
"The Chinese ultimately want to push the Americans back but at the moment they have toned down their anti-American rhetoric," said a Western diplomat in Beijing.
China has responded by stepping up its wooing of Southeast Asian nations, working to overcome suspicions dating back decades to its financing of Communist guerrilla movements in the region.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique