- The United States upped its pressure on China yesterday,
saying it was "concerned" over its military build-up and telling
it to talk to its two bêtes noires - the Dalai Lama and the president
of Taiwan.
-
- On a visit to Beijing, Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary
of state, did not shy away from the assertive tone the Bush administration
has recently taken towards China's communist leaders.
-
- They were expecting thanks for persuading North Korea
to rejoin talks on its nuclear weapons programme, a decision it announced
on Saturday. But Miss Rice suggested there were no results yet to celebrate
and she denied retracting her assessment of North Korea as an "outpost
of tyranny".
-
- She also said: "There is no doubt that we have concerns
about the size and pace of the Chinese military build-up, and it's not
just the Pentagon. I've made clear to people this is a view held by the
US government."
-
- She said that this did not mean China was a "threat".
-
- But she added: "We just take note of the fact that
there is a significant military build-up going on. . . that we have concerns
about the military balance." The Bush administration came to power
saying it regarded China as a "strategic competitor", its most
likely rival for world leadership in the 21st century.
-
- This critical stance was shelved after the events of
September 2001 in favour of co-operation against Islamic extremists.
-
- But the administration's more recent focus on spreading
democracy has put China squarely in its sights once again.
-
- The administration was also offended by a decision by
China to pass an anti-secession law threatening to invade Taiwan if it
declared independence.
-
- This decision was in spite of the heavy pressure that
Washington had brought on the island not to provoke Beijing.
-
- Miss Rice said it was time for China's leaders to meet
Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian.
-
- For good measure she said she had urged the claims of
the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader. He was "no threat"
to China, she said.
-
- Six-way talks between North Korea, the United States,
China, South Korea, Russia and Japan are scheduled to take place in the
last week of July.
-
- The last round of talks broke up with no result in June
last year.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
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- http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/11
/wchina11.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/07/11/ixworld.html
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