US President George W. Bush pressed China yesterday to curb the spread of weapons technology and let its people live and worship freely on the first day of a visit designed to build on a new spirit of Sino-US cooperation.
But despite smiles and warm handshakes all round, Bush, who arrived in the capital Beijing exactly 30 years after a bridge-building visit by former president Richard Nixon, failed to secure a hoped-for early deal on arms proliferation.
PHOTO: AFP
Chinese President Jiang Zemin (
Bush, visiting China for the second time in four months, was on the final leg of a three-nation Asian tour that has taken him to Japan and South Korea.
"My government hopes that China will strongly oppose the proliferation of missiles and other deadly technologies," he told a joint news conference after talks with Jiang marked by a series of frank but friendly exchanges.
The US has accused China of transferring weapons technology to North Korea and Iran, nations Bush has branded with Iraq as an "axis of evil" seeking to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
US National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said she did not expect an arms-proliferation deal to be reached during Bush's visit to China, which denies the US charges.
"The talks are getting a little bit better but it's going to take a while," Rice said.
Bush invited Jiang and his heir apparent and vice president, Hu Jintao (
Bush said there had been no change in Washington's policy toward Taiwan and he said the people of China should be free to choose how they live and worship.
"China's future is for the Chinese people to decide, yet no nation is exempt from the demands of human dignity," he said.
"All the world's people, including the people of China, should be free to choose how they live, how they worship and how they work."
Bush also urged Jiang to open talks with the Dalai Lama and Vatican in an extensive exchange on religious freedoms, Rice said.
In a rare and unscripted moment of candor, Jiang said he had read the Bible, the Koran and Buddhist scriptures despite being a non-believer.
Beijing had always protected such freedoms in its Constitution, Jiang said.
Asked twice by reporters about why Beijing had imprisoned more than 50 Roman Catholic bishops, Jiang said: "Whatever religion people believe in, they have to abide by the law. So some of the law-breakers have been detained because of their violation of law, not because of their religious beliefs."
Bush, arriving from South Korea where he expressed support for Kim Dae-jung's "sunshine policy" of reconciliation with North Korea, said the US was willing to meet the government of the North's leader, Kim Jong-il.
He asked Jiang to convey that message. Jiang said later he hoped that contacts between the US and North Korea would be resumed.
South Korea said Bush had eased fears there his tough stance on the North would upset the fragile peace on the dangerously armed remaining frontier of the Cold War. Spokeswoman Park Son-sook said Kim Dae-jung's talks with Bush had helped ease South Korean anxiety.
Masking sharp differences on proliferation, Taiwan, human rights and missile defense, Beijing and Washington have stressed that bilateral ties are on the mend since China declared its support for the US-led war on terrorism.
China is deeply worried about US arms sales to Taiwan and the US military presence in Central Asia, but is more anxious to smooth ties with its second biggest trading partner and a key source of investment in the sensitive run-up to a leadership handover this autumn.
Bush met Jiang at the Great Hall of the People. The two leaders entered the hall walking side by side along a red carpet. A military band in green uniforms played the US and Chinese national anthems and Bush stood to attention with his hand over his heart during the American anthem.
After reviewing a Chinese honor guard, Bush put his arm round Jiang and smiled broadly as they walked off to begin formal talks.
Emerging from a private meeting with Bush, Jiang said: "We just had a very good discussion about issues of utmost mutual concern."
Bush then thanked Jiang for supporting the war on terrorism.
Jiang himself urged patience in that war. "Despite the fact that sometimes you will have problems that cry out for immediate solution, patience is sometimes also necessary," he said, when asked about the best way forward on Iraq.
A recent CIA report accused China of providing dual-use missile-related items, raw materials and assistance to countries including Iran and North Korea.
"We're making it clear that weapons of mass destruction, the missiles that deliver them -- it's all part of an evil web," one US official said. "You better not be seen as contributing to the construction of that web."
Washington wants Beijing to renew its commitment to the November 2000 deal not to help any country develop missiles that can carry nuclear weapons, and to abide by the Missile Technology Control Regime, a voluntary international accord that tries to limit missile exports to unstable regions.
It also wants China to issue a list of dual-use items covered by non-proliferation agreements.
China says it has not violated any international or bilateral commitments on weapons proliferation and wants the US to lift sanctions on Chinese entities accused of breaking such pacts.
Sino-U.S relations got off to a rocky start under Bush, marred by the mid-air collision between a Chinese fighter and a US EP-3 spy plane and Bush's vow to do "whatever it takes" to defend Taiwan.
China held the 24-member crew of the US spy plane for 11 days until the US said it was "very sorry" that the damaged plane made an unauthorized landing on Hainan island. The plane was eventually returned, in crates.
But US officials said ties are back on track and in some ways improved since the Sept. 11 attacks on the US, with help on intelligence-sharing, investigating banks and some Chinese support for the US-led war in Afghanistan.
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