Posted on 01/19/2002 10:33:01 PM PST by tallhappy
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 (³¯¤ô«ó) 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 (¿ú¨äµ`), 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.
Yeah, like China is going to reposition its forces in the West near Kashmir/India/Pakistan/Afghanistan all the way across their nation to the East in order to display some form of credible threat to Taiwan right now!
What a joke. All that the PLA can do is tell their diplomats to talk tough these days. They have no war option at all in today's environment.
Generals in Taipei must be laughing themselves silly seeing the poor PLA diplomats reduced to such a lousy "negotiating" position...
Still supporting break-away provinces? Now we get tough - we take home all our grad students!
Excellent point.
Bush says forget about further prosecuting and further investigating Chinagate, illegal Chinese campaign contributions and illegal transfers of US military tecnology to the CHinese because both Repubs and Democrats are guilty of the same treasonous behavior with China
China is continuing to threaten nuclear war with the US and is threatening US business in China. But Bush and Rice and Powell continue to appease and there is no complaint from the Democrats or Repubs about the Chinese.
Nothing will stop China when they nationalize US businesses in China after the businesses spend billions in CHina and build factories and transfer know how to the Chinese.
Rice, Powell, Bush and the Repubs and Democrats are absolute fools when it comes to China policy. They will be responsible for the economic and military destruction of the US at the hands of the CHinese.
Good.
Since we don't have the balls to stand up to China, perhaps this will help force our hand.
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.
Very Telling..
From the Michigan Primary Debate, Calvin College:
BUSH. ..I want to say something about Cuba in our hemisphere. There are some folks in our country who believe we ought to trade with Cuba. I don't. I think that would be wrong-headed. I think it's be a mistake. Capital that goes into Cuba will be used by the Fidel Castro government to prop itself up. There is a commission-type system in Cuba. Dollars invested will be dollars that will end up supporting this totalitarian regime. It's in our best interests for us to promote freedom in the island right off the coast of Florida. It's in our best interest to keep the pressure on Fidel Castro until he allows free elections, free press and free the prisoners in that island. And for those Americans that believe that trade with Cuba will cause Castro to become less totalitarian, in my judgment are naïve and wrong.
BAUER. Governor, you just made the case for withdrawing most favored nation status from China.
BUSH. I did not.
BAUER. Everything that you just said about Cuba applies to China.
BUSH. Let me answer that. Let me answer that.
RUSSERT. The difference between China and Cuba.
BUSH. May I answer that please?
RUSSERT. Please.
BUSH. There is a huge difference, a huge difference between trading with an entrepreneurial class like that which is growing in China and allowing a Fidel Castro government to skim capital moneys off the top of capital investment. There's a huge difference, a huge difference.
BAUER. Governor, one-third of the trade with China is with companies controlled by the People's Liberation Army.
BUSH. Gary.
BAUER. You know that and I know that. Tell the people rotting in the prisons of China that there's any difference between Castro's Cuba and Communist China. There is none.
BUSH. Let me say this. If we turn our back on the entrepreneurial class that is taking wing in China, we're making a huge mistake. If we turn our back on those that have gotten a whiff of freedom as a result of the marketplace taking hold, we're making a big mistake.
BAUER. Listen, I --
BUSH. We're making a big mistake. We're making a big mistake.
BAUER. The People's Liberation is O.K.?
BUSH. No it's not. I'm talking about the entrepreneurial class that is growing in the country of China.
BAUER. Sir, they are using that money for a massive arms buildup that our sons will have to deal with down the road.
BUSH. Only if you're the president.
BAUER. You can't be tough on China and not on --
BUSH. If I'm the president --
(BOTH TALKING AT ONCE)
RUSSERT. Mr. Bauer. Mr. Bauer, Mr. Bush. Let me move to another area
Just a theory! I have no evidence, other than a complete lack of information from normal sources.
Panic, power struggle, paralysis.
Your question is so simple, but very good.
Sorry OKC, but I would not say that. I would say that Bush has yet to firm up a China policy. By that I mean, it is not completed. He has taken alot of the Clinton speak out of the dialoge and has peed them off. They want to go back to the non-statement statements of the past.
Now look at how many American business companies are engaging their corporations in joint ventures in China. Thousands and thousands," he said.
Now just what would happen to the US economy if these thousands and thousands of businesses were to experience something adverse?
They were once our friends, a long time ago. The communists are the problem. Just like it was with the former Soviets.IMHO
And an example would be?
Great. Then we can get the Made in China goods out of our stores.
The ep-3 hostage situation.
Statements to the effect that we would honor our defense pact with Taiwan
Clinton danced around on these issues during his second term while he took money from them.
EP3? You mean the plane they forced down, boarded, took hostages from then dissassembled and we apologized for?
That Plane?
I had the same thought.
rofl, that would have been so beautiful.
"Uh, well we did arrange air transport for the plane in a manner of speaking.. We thought we would just let the prevailing winds carry it back"
Someone please correct me if I am wrong. I am beat and about to take a 8 hr nap. My spelling is starting to suck.
The customs people have made a lot of arrests, but I don't know how many have been procecuted. The govt. often has been lax in the past.
If it says "Made in China," it's made by slave labor in Communist China. If it says "Made in Taiwan," its is. (The labels used to say "Made in R.O.C.," which meant "Republic of China," which is Taiwan - but that stopped after we cozied up to the Reds.)
The media ignored the China threat for all those years to protect Clinton. After all, had they reported the truth as it exists while Chinagate was going on, the heat on Clinton would've been MUCH stronger. So, they conditioned themselves to ignore the China threat and refuse to report it. That conditioning is still in place. China is our friend. Clinton said so. That's it.
MM
Sounds like someone needs their TS card punched, eh?
Aye, there's the rub.
The former Soviets! But no such thing in China, is there.
So, why are the Soviets "former", while the Chinese communists are not "former"?
The answer is one that will not be popular in this country.
The Soviets are "former" because the US 1) applied pressure (Afghanistan, "star wars", etc.) that caused the communists to bankrupt their regime, and 2) stood by and let them bankrupt it without us rescuing them.
Now, they're our friends (while China remains a foe).
What's different with China?
We're doing the exact opposite of what we did vis-a-vis the Soviets, that's what! And we'd be utter fools to think we'd get the same result!
Instead of applying pressure, we're greasing the way for them. MFN, WTO, etc.
And instead of standing back and letting the communist regime fall apart, we're giving them billions and billions of US dollars! Dollars that were invested in US businesses, farms, industries, and jobs.
I guess you might say I see a bit of a problem with the idea that the situation is, "Just like it was with the former Soviets." :)
A BIG share of Japan's economic troubles is due not only to the fact that a lot of those dollars have moved to China, but the globalists here have followed by moving production out of Japan.
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