Contacts with China’s military would likely be the first to suffer if Beijing moves to retaliate over upcoming US arms sales to Taiwan — the latest in a flurry of disputes elevating tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) warned that the Obama administration risked damaging ties with China if it proceeds with an arms package deal, which is likely to include Black Hawk helicopters and Patriot missiles.
“Once again, we urge the US side to recognize the sensitivity of weapon sales to Taiwan and its gravity,” Ma told reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference on Tuesday.
PHOTO: SAM YEH, AFP
He said failure to halt the sales would “impair the larger interests of China-US cooperation.”
Ma’s comments were echoed yesterday by the China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
“Our stance of opposing arms sales to Taiwan by any country is consistent and clear,” office spokesman Yang Yi (楊毅) said. “We feel that advancing the peaceful development of cross-strait relations is the only real way to benefit Taiwan’s peace and stability.”
Weapons sales to Taiwan is one of a string of sensitive issues roiling ties between China and the US that have prompted pointed responses from Beijing.
In 2008, China suspended most military dialogue with Washington after the Bush administration approved a US$6.5 billion arms package to Taiwan that included guided missiles and attack helicopters.
China’s Defense Ministry warned in a statement earlier this month that arms sales “seriously damaged mutual trust between the militaries of China and the US and create a major obstacle to improving and developing US-China military relations.
The ministry said it “reserved the right to take further action,” but gave no specifics.
Among upcoming exchanges that could suffer: General Chen Bingde (陳炳德), chief of the general staff, is scheduled to visit the US, while US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, are planning to visit China.
Washington has sought to raise the profile and frequency of such visits, using them as the basis for expanded cooperation in practical areas such as joint rescue drills. The Pentagon also hopes to build trust with Beijing to convince the Communist government to reveal more about the aims of its massive military buildup.
Also potentially at risk are a planned exchange of visits this year by the heads of NASA and China’s national space program and a hoped-for revival of a bilateral dialogue on human rights.
RIGHTS TALKS
Meanwhile, China and the US’ on-off dialogue on human rights faces postponement again amid discord between the two powers over Internet censorship.
Talks were meant to take place last year, but a date was never set.
The two countries agreed in November, during US President Barack Obama’s visit to China, that they would resume discussions by the end of next month at the latest. This now looks unlikely and it is thought the US is suggesting dates in late March.
“We are still continuing to work with the Chinese to schedule,” a US State Department official said. “Human rights dialogue is a priority for the US.”
Although critics complain the dialogue has achieved little, advocates say it is an opportunity to raise important issues and individual cases of concern directly.
Some observers believe US officials could be tarrying, fearing that if they do not get a substantive agenda for the talks China could say it is engaging on human rights — but the US could get little in return.
Human rights groups are concerned about last year’s crackdown on lawyers in China, Internet censorship (which was recently highlighted by the Google case) and the long sentence given to the dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波).
The last human rights meeting, in May 2008, followed a four-year hiatus. Beijing announced it was suspending participation in 2004 after the US sponsored a resolution at the UN human rights commission condemning China’s record.
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