Sun, Jan 20, 2002 page2

• Correction:

  There was a mistake in the story we ran on January 20st reporting the press conference of Zhou Mingwei, deputy minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council in Beijing, in Washington. Due to a computer error the story filed actually dated from Zhou's visit in 2001. It has now been replaced with the corrected story of Zhou's most recent visit.

  • By Charles Snyder / STAFF REPORTER
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  A senior Taiwan policy official from the mainland completed three days of talks in Washington Friday exuding confidence that Sino-US relations have improved markedly over the past year, but breaking no new ground in cross-Strait relations.

  Zhou Mingwei, the deputy minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council in Beijing, capped his visit with an unexpected meeting at the office of Vice President Dick Cheney Friday evening after having met with senior State Department and National Security Council officials over the past two days.

  While the question of President Chen Shui-bian's decision to add the word, Taiwan, to the cover of Taiwan passports did not figure much in his talks with US officials, Zhou slammed the proposal during a press conference toward the end of his visit.

  "Some people in the DPP have hollowed out the 'three noes,' what the administration had promised," he said, referring to the pledges Chen made in his inaugural

  address not to seek independence or similar policies.

  Zhou called the passport action "a challenge to the one-China principle, "is harmful for the fundamental interests of the people on both sides," and harms the stability of cross-Strait relations "that both the United States and China are concerned about."

  Zhou called his Washington trip "extremely useful" and said he was "very well received."

  While the main focus appeared to be overall US-China relations, Taiwan clearly took up a fair amount of time. The visit, planned before President Bush's decision

  to go to China next month, took on added significance as a result of the trip, announced just two days before Zhou

  set off for America.

  Zhou refused to comment on reports that Jiang Zemin will visit Washington later this year. But he did alert reporters to "an important statement" on cross-Strait relations that Deputy Foreign Minister Qian Qichen will be making in Beijing on Monday, the seventh anniversary of

  President Jiang Zemin's 1995 speech in which he set out his "eight points" toward Taiwan

  reunification. he gave no indication what the speech would contain.

  In connection with that planned statement, Zhou also took note of a speech Qian made on September 10, one day before the Muslim terrorist attacks on the World

  Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. In that statement, which was largely overlooked in the shadow of the

  terrorist attacks, Qian said that China would not set any deadlines on talks if Taiwan accepted the

  one-China principle. That "is a very strong and clear message," he said.

  He also made a pitch to get more Democratic Progressive Party members to visit China, even DPP "fundamentalists" to "have a look at what the mainland looks like." But he said that China would not welcome DPP legislators if they came in their official capacity.

  Zhou's visit comes at a time of surprisingly good relations between Washington and Beijing. Several irritants which dogged earlier visits are no longer present. These include the annual spring decision on arms sales to Taiwan, the US-sponsored anti-China resolution at the

  UN Human Rights Commission Geneva meeting in April, and the question of annual renewal of US favorable trade ties with China, now that China is in the World Trade

  Organization.

  At the same time, China is facing an extremely difficult year, and seeks desperately to

  assure Washington's goodwill to avert disruptive disputes that can divert Beijing's attention from

  domestic problems. These include this fall's 16th Communist Party Congress, difficulties associated with WTO membership this year, and preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic

  Games.

  Chinese officials taking tough line on US arms sales

  VEILED WARNINGS:
  A top official from Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office also warned US businesses that they would suffer if the arms sales continued

  By Charles Snyder
  

  STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON

  The No. 2 man in Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhou Mingwei, has again warned that Taiwan's failure to approve reunification with China will mean war and issued a veiled threat to US businesses operating in China if the administration of George W. Bush continues selling arms to Taiwan.

  Zhou was indirect when he met reporters at the end of four days of talks in Washington with US government officials, members of Congress, overseas Chinese groups and scholars.

  He also ruled out any talks with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) or the DPP, saying the party has still not adopted the "one China" principle.

  Zhou and other members of his delegation declined to give specifics of their discussions while in Washington, but called the meetings useful in advancing mutual understanding. Many of their answers to specific questions were vague and limited to diplomatic formulas.

  Nothing that Zhou or the others said was new, but it was significant that they were saying it in Washington after the first discussions in recent history between US officials and Chinese officials dealing with Taiwan affairs.

  The prospect of fresh US arms sales to Taiwan in April was clearly an important concern for the group, whose visit comes a month before a planned visit to Washington by Deputy Premier Qian Qichen (錢其琛), Beijing's top foreign policymaker, who will also talk about arms sales while in Washington.

  "The most painful and destructive experience for US-China relations is arms sales to Taiwan, which we do not want to see," Zhou said, warning that if the Bush administration sells more arms to Taiwan, "consequences will happen."

  Wei Youlong, the director-general of Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office, who was accompanying Zhou, said: "Arms sales deeply hurt the feelings of the Chinese people."

  "It's like when the two sides have differences over the question of unification, the US gives a gun to the Taiwan side. It is like adding fuel to the fire. It will only make matters worse," he said.

  Another official in the delegation said the arms sales hinder cross-strait talks.

  "Arms sales to Taiwan have served to harden or inflate the arrogance of the hardliners in Taiwan," said Xu Shiquan, the president of the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "The sales make it more difficult for the resumption of dialogue across the Strait."

  Zhou warned the US that arms sales could hurt US commercial interests in China, which have grown rapidly in recent years and are expected to mushroom now China has entered the WTO.

  Zhou drew a parallel with 1992, when the elder George Bush approved F-16 sales to Taiwan and China could do nothing about it.

  "Now look at how many American business companies are engaging their corporations in joint ventures in China. Thou-sands and thousands," he said.

  "With WTO entry, we are look-ing forward to having more American business sectors having long-term investment in that region, which all requires peaceful, stable surroundings there.

  "To create such a hot spot, which could be explosive any time, it would eventually hurt bilateral relations and hurt US interests," he said.

  "If there is a new war in the region, it very clearly will hurt the interests of both sides, which is very contradictory to America's basic interests in the region," he said.

  Zhou reiterated China's commitment to peaceful reunification with Taiwan. "But at the same time you cannot simply talk about peace without talking about reunification. Otherwise, what is the purpose of peace," he said.

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