The US complained to China on Monday about Beijing's military buildup across the Taiwan Strait during a day-long military consultative meeting in Washington, the first such meeting since the EP-3 incident in April last year, and the highest-level military-to-military exchange between the two countries since George W. Bush became president.
The two sides apparently did not discuss Chinese President Jiang Zemin's (江澤民) reported recent offer to reduce the number of missiles targeting Taiwan if the US scaled back its arms sales to the country.
The talks resulted from the October summit between Bush and Jiang and represent an effort to improve bilateral relations in the wake of Sept. 11.
"They were real discussions. They were not just stilted set pieces," Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith told reporters after the talks. "We came away with some additional understanding of the personalities on the other side and the ideas on the other side."
On Taiwan, however, the talks were not so harmonious.
"We said that we thought the [Chinese missile buildup across from Taiwan] is threatening and appears to be designed to, you know, coerce and intimidate, and that is not the right approach to reducing risks and tensions regarding Taiwan," Feith said.
But Feith refused to comment on reports of a possible US-China deal to reduce arms on both sides of the Strait. He also said that the US plan to sell Taiwan diesel submarines and other advanced weapons systems "didn't come up."
There have been reports that during the summit Jiang suggested the missiles-for-arms-sales exchange, reports apparently confirmed recently by Chen Chien-jen (
"There is no damage done to the Taiwan people by missile deployment," Liu said at a regular briefing, answering a Taiwanese reporter's question.
"The Chinese side has the right to military deployment in its own territory. What we need to fend off is Taiwan's independence forces, Liu said.
"The Chinese side's position on US arms sales to Taiwan is consistent: We oppose it under any pretext. It is a violation of China's `one China' policy and damages bilateral relations," Liu said.
In Washington, Feith said that the proposal itself had not come up, "but the topic of China's missile buildup across from Taiwan did. We raised it."
He said the topic came up "in the context of discussing actions that do not contribute to the stability of the area."
While no sort of quid pro quo came up, Feith said, "The Chinese commented about the US defense relationship with Taiwan when we commented about the Chinese missile build-up across from Taiwan. That's fairly standard."
Feith headed the US side in the day-long discussions.
The Chinese side was headed by General Xiong Guangkai
Feith said that Taiwan "headed" the issues of disagreement between the two sides in the talks.
"On Taiwan," he said, "the US reaffirmed our position on Taiwan. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, China did not renounce the use of force to resolve the Taiwan conflict," he said.
He made the comment a day after Beijing released its latest biannual report on its defense structure and policies, in which it again refused to renounce the use of force.
The report, titled "China's National Defense in 2002," stridently condemned Taiwan independence forces and said China "will not forswear the use of force."
"China's armed forces will unswervingly defend the country's sovereignty and unity, and have the resolve as well as the capability to check any separatist act," the report said.
Feith declined to respond to that statement. Holding up a copy of the report, he said that he had been handed the document only a few hours earlier by the Chinese delegation, and had not had a chance to read it.
The talks covered a range of issues including North Korea's nuclear buildup, Iraq, weapons proliferation, China's military modernization and regional stability.
Chinese officials also presented a detailed proposal for military-to-military contacts with the US, Feith said. He said it was too soon to offer a US reaction to the Chinese proposals.
The Pentagon wants the exchanges to be more than just port calls and photo opportunities, Feith said. "If the exchanges are structured properly, they will serve our interests, our common interests, providing insights, to reduce the possibility of mistakes, of misunderstanding."
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