20000204

China warns Japan, US over Taiwan

BEIJING: China warned Japan on Thursday against hosting Lee Teng-hui after he steps down as Taiwan's president and demanded the United States block legislation that would boost military ties with the island.

"It doesn't matter in what form or name he visits Japan, it would constitute a serious political situation in China-Japan ties," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told reporters.

"The Chinese government expresses its resolute opposition to this," Zhu said when asked to comment on reported plans by Lee to visit Japan after his term ends in May.

China hoped Japan would handle the issue with care and skill, he added.

Lee, Taiwan's president since 1988, is reviled by Beijing for trying to break Taipei out of diplomatic isolation and suggesting that relations between Taipei and Beijing should be on a state-to-state basis.

Beijing has regarded Taiwan as a breakaway province since the Communists won a civil war and drove the defeated Nationalists into exile in 1949.

Zhu declined to comment on CIA Director George Tenet's testimony of potential for military confrontation between China and Taiwan this year.

"We see high potential for another military flare-up across the Taiwan Strait this year" with the Taiwan presidential election on March 18 a potential catalyst for tensions, Tenet said in a draft of testimony to be delivered to Congress.

China menaced Taiwan with war games in the run-up to the island's first direct presidential elections in 1996, prompting the United States to send two aircraft carriers to waters separating the two rivals.

In a swipe at the United States, Zhu said China's desire to maintain the option of using force to prevent Taiwan becoming independenct is aimed at dissuading foreign countries from backing such a move.

But China's longstanding policies of peaceful reunification with Taiwan and "one country, two systems" have not changed, he said.

Beijing has wooed Taiwan to reunify under the "one country, two systems" formula, under which Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 followed by Macau last December.

Wealthy and democratic Taiwan has rejected the formula, which granted the territories a large degree of autonomy, and insisted China embrace Western-style democracy as a precondition for reunification.

Zhu again denounced the U.S. House of Representatives for passing the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act, which would establish direct military communications between Washington and Taipei and expand U.S. training of Taiwan military officers.

He demanded the United States curb the sale of advanced weapons to Taiwan and block the legislation, which faces a presidential veto.

On Wednesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Joseph Prueher to protest against the legislation.

The spokesman blasted the bill as "a serious encroachment on China's sovereignty and gross interference in China's internal affairs".

China has the "determination, confidence and ability" to resolve reunification at an early date, he said without elaborating.

Attempts to block reunification were doomed to fail, he said.-Reuters