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- Beijing is to abandon Deng Xiaoping's
low-profile foreign policy to beat back the challenges of a fast-expanding
Washington-led Nato.
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- The rethink came about since the bombing
of the Belgrade Embassy, when leading Politburo members and their advisers
discussed how to counter what they regarded as a deliberate trampling of
Chinese sovereignty.
-
- "The Politburo Standing Committee
has decided that if the Washington-led Nato has its way in Europe, it will
next target China," a diplomatic source in Beijing said.
-
- "The elite body has endorsed a number
of measures to seize the initiative through asserting itself in foreign
policy."
-
- Among the recommendations given preliminary
approval are:
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- Playing a more aggressive role in the
United Nations. Sensing that President Bill Clinton is considering using
a UN-backed peace plan as a face-saving measure to retreat partially from
Yugoslavia, Beijing has insisted Nato ends air strikes before endorsing
the scheme.
-
- But should a UN peace-keeping force that
meets Beijing's approval be formed, the Jiang leadership has signalled
its willingness to dispatch PLA officers.
-
- Analysts said this was a rare gesture
of commitment given Beijing's traditional reluctance to join international
peace-keeping efforts.
-
- Developing a world-class arsenal, particularly
missiles, to counter the "Nato military machine". Beijing has
served notice on the US that unless Nato reins in its aggressive tendencies,
it will delay ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Diplomats
said Chinese strategists had engaged in vague talk about the resumption
of an active nuclear development programme.
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- Forming a potential anti-Nato alliance.
Beijing is working with Moscow to ensure the "multi-polar nature"
of the new world order. Further "anti-hegemonistic" plans are
to be worked out in a November summit between President Jiang Zemin and
President Boris Yeltsin.
-
- A Western diplomat said Beijing had made
veiled threats about resuming or upgrading "nuclear co-operation"
with Iran and Pakistan.
-
- Serving warning on America's Asian allies
not to abet a Nato-initiated anti-China containment policy. It is understood
Beijing recently warned Japan not to provide a launch pad for US or Nato
weaponry should the alliance target China.
-
- A Chinese source said Mr Jiang, who is
de facto diplomat-in-chief, had, in effect, jettisoned Deng's well-known
dictum.
-
- In the wake of the post-Tiananmen Square
embargoes, the late patriarch said that in foreign policy: "China
will keep a low profile, maintain a cool head, and never take the lead."
-
- The source said the outburst of anti-Nato
feelings since the embassy bombing had put pressure on Beijing.
-
- "National People's Congress deputies
and students have written to the leadership asking why China always abstains
in the UN Security Council," the source said.
-
- "In internal talks, Politburo members
expressed the fear that the students would next stage protests against
a 'weak central Government' unless Beijing counters threats to national
security."
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