US Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed Beijing to accept a Taiwanese offer of talks and urged China yesterday to exert its influence over North Korea to resume stalled talks on scrapping its nuclear weapons programs.
Powell, on the second leg of a trip to revive the six-way talks with Pyongyang, wants Beijing to push harder to secure a breakthrough and crown relations with Washington that he described as the best in 30 years.
"China has considerable influence with North Korea," Powell said at a news conference after meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao (
"I hope that as a result of our conversations, both of us will energize the other members of the the six-party framework to resolve the outstanding issues that keep us from setting a date for a meeting," he said.
Powell also raised sensitive bilateral issues.
On human rights, the two agreed to re-establish talks after what Powell called China's backsliding last year.
On Taiwan, Powell said he pushed China to keep an open mind and seize opportunities to hold talks to reduce tension.
"I particularly encouraged the Chinese leaders who I met with today to do everything they could to get into cross-strait dialogue in a more systematic and deliberate way," Powell said.
He sought to reduce tension between Taipei and Beijing by citing a speech by President Chen Sui-bian (
Chinese officials said they were unmoved by the speech and voiced concerns about Chen.
"The response that I received from the Chinese leadership today was that they are still concerned about President Chen Shui-bian's actions."
China also complained about US missile defense and submarine sales to Taiwan.
Powell said he "reinforced our total commitment to the one-power, `one China' policy" -- the US doctrine that doesn't endorse Taiwan independence.
But he also stressed that US law requires Washington to supply the nation's democratically elected government with weapons needed to defend itself.
"We will continue to meet our responsibilities," Powell said. "We very carefully balance responsibilities that we have to China and responsibilities that we have to Taiwan under our own domestic law."
Hu called on Powell for Washington to help curb "Taiwan independence forces," the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Hu said "opposition to `Taiwan independence' and curbing risky activities of `Taiwan independence' forces are in the common interests of both China and the United States," the report said.
Powell also pressed China to free a New York Times researcher arrested for passing state secrets to foreigns, but received the pointed response that the detainee was a Chinese citizen.
Powell is under pressure to revive the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program because Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry has criticized the Bush administration for failing to stop Pyongyang.
North Korea has threatened to double its deterrent and blocked a planned September round of the talks, that involve host China, North and South Korea, the US, Japan and Russia, after three earlier sessions made scant progress.
The US suspects North Korea is stalling in the hope Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry will win the Nov. 2 election and open bilateral talks that might lead to more US concessions.
Powell rejected North Korea's preconditions for a new round of talks, called it a "terrorist state" with "no respect whatsoever for human rights" and warned it not to get caught proliferating.
Also See Story:
MOFA thanks Powell for efforts in China
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS