- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned that Beijing would
not allow Taiwan to use democratic aspirations as a cover for separatism,
after arriving Sunday in the United States where he met with UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan.
-
- Wen, during his three-day official visit to the United
States, is to seek assurances from the administration of US President George
W. Bush that Washington will rein in Taiwan, viewed by China as a renegade
province, the Chinese news agency Xinhua said.
-
- The Chinese premier's arrival in New York came two days
after Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian announced he would hold a referendum
critical of China's missile threat to the island -- which Beijing views
as a renegade province -- next March.
-
- President George W. Bush is due to welcome Wen at the
White House on Tuesday, with both sides hoping common interests on issues
like North Korea will trump gaping divisions over the nationalist island,
weapons proliferation and trade.
-
- However, Washington has yet to publicly condemn Chen's
decision on the Taiwan referendum.
-
- Wen, asked Sunday about the referendum, said mainland
China understood "the aspiration of the people in Taiwan for democracy."
-
- "However, the essence of the problem now is that
the separatist forces within the Taiwan authorities attempt to use democracy
only as a cover to split Taiwan away from China and this is what we will
never tolerate," Wen was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
-
- Meanwhile, during Sunday's meeting at UN headquarters,
Wen and Annan "had a very constructive and stimulating conversation,"
the United Nations chief said.
-
- Annan said that discussions had focused on China-UN relations,
Iraq, the Korean Peninsula and efforts to contain AIDS/HIV.
-
- "We also agreed to continue our cooperation,"
he said, noting talks by the two on UN reform and the need to strengthen
the organization to "make it effective and more responsive to the
challenges of our time."
-
- "I was also very, very pleased to be able to thank
him for the very strong support, economic, material, financial and otherwise,
that China is providing to the African continent," Annan said.
-
- Wen's visit is part of a four-nation tour which will
also take him to Canada, Mexico and Ethiopia. On the three-day US leg Wen
will visit Washington and Boston as well as New York, diplomatic Chinese
sources said.
-
- Asked how Taiwan's announcement that it intends to hold
a referendum would complicate Asian issues and affairs, Annan replied:
"All differences will be settled politically ... We maintain the One
China Policy and the need to resolve all issues peacefully."
-
- On Friday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell for his
part commenting on Taiwan said: "We remain totally committed to our
one-China policy founded on the three communiques and the Taiwan Relations
Act," in remarks clearly directed towards Beijing.
-
- "We do not support independence for Taiwan."
-
- Beijing has condemned the referendum as one step closer
to the plebiscite on independence it has warned could trigger an invasion
to reunify Taiwan with the mainland.
-
- Analysts say Washington is unlikely to alter its formula
for Taiwan policy. Opposing both independence and any Chinese military
designs on the island, the US president is bound by law to offer the means
of self defense.
-
- "The current position is the best strategic position
... (the administration) doesn't need a crisis over Taiwan in an election
year," said John Gershman of the Foreign Policy in Focus think tank,
referring to the US presidential election in 2004.
-
- US-Chinese cooperation over North Korea, and China's
help on the US anti-terror campaign, have led Bush aides to employ warm
praise for Beijing -- which would have seemed implausible three years ago.
-
- "US relations with China are the best they have
been since President Nixon's first visit," Powell said in September,
referring to the former US leader's epochal journey to Beijing in 1972.
-
- In recent months, those gains have been threatened.
-
- Bush has been besieged by opponents who claim low-wage
China is sucking tens of thousands of jobs from US workers, and is artificially
protecting its currency.
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