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Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 73 19 January 1998 In this issue: (1) FOCUS-TAIWAN FEELS HEAT OF U.S.-CHINA DEFENCE TIES
(2) U.S., CHINA COMMIT TO NAUTICAL PACT
(3) CHINA, U.S. SIGN MILITARY COOPERATION AGREEMENT
(4) COHEN SEES BETTER MILITARY TIES WITH CHINA
(5) CHINA'S DEFENSE CHIEF WANTS 'STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP' WITH U.S.
(6) MOSLEM EXILES SAY FIGHT AGAINST CHINA RULE GOES ON
(7) THE SITUATION WITH AIDS IN CHINA DETERIORATE.
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (1) FOCUS-TAIWAN FEELS HEAT OF U.S.-CHINA DEFENCE TIES
TAIPEI, Jan 18 (Reuters) - As the United States and China narrow their differences, a central point of bilateral strategic friction -- Taiwan -- finds itself in an unsettling squeeze. Better Sino-U.S. ties help to ensure that America's strong support of Taiwan's young democracy will be felt behind the ochre walls of Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound. But at the same time, rapprochement means Washington is ready to treat communist China as a serious global strategic player and might, Taipei fears, become more sympathetic to Beijing's high ambition of bringing Taiwan finally under its sovereignty. Taiwan is watching closely this week for any signs of a U.S.-China strategic shift. U.S. Defence Secretary William Cohen flew into Beijing on Saturday for a three-day visit seen as a crucial precursor to a state visit by President Bill Clinton, saying he was pleased the U.S. and Chinese armed forces were opening up to each other about their budgets and strategic interests. "I think that (openness) helps to break down some of the distrust and suspicion," Cohen said, noting that Washington was urging Beijing to open up further. Such talk makes Taiwan nervous. Taipei prefers the image of the United States on its side, for instance when Washington sent two aircraft carriers to the region to counter Beijing's military intimidation of Taiwan's March 1996 elections. The last outpost of the Republic of China since it was routed from the mainland by the communists in 1949, Taiwan says warming U.S.-China ties need not come at the island's expense -- but sees Beijing as a wily tactician that cannot always be trusted. It was no coincidence that as Cohen arrived in Beijing, his predecessor at the Pentagon, William Perry, was in Taipei leading a private but high-powered delegation of former U.S. military leaders in meetings with senior Taiwan officials. Perry's visit with John Shalikashvili, ex-chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, former U.S. national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and former Pacific commander-in-chief Ronald Hayes, was seen widely as a welcome show of U.S. support despite the lack of U.S.-Taiwan diplomatic ties. In talks with Taiwan's top China policymaker, Chang King-yuh of the cabinet's Mainland Affairs Council, Perry reiterated U.S. support for the peaceful unification of Taiwan and the mainland and for the principles of democracy, freedom and economic prosperity on both sides of the Taiwan strait. Perry declined to comment, but according to Chang's account, Perry pressed Taipei to open "multichannel communications" and "multilayer exchanges" with Beijing, which could be seen as indicating U.S. sympathy with China's position. Chang said that Perry, who just visited Beijing, relayed an offer from President Jiang Zemin and other communist leaders to open talks with Taipei "with no preconditions" -- language that arouses hopes as well as suspicions on Taiwan. Beijing has long conditioned talks on Taiwan acceping its "one China" principle -- that the only China is the communist People's Republic and that Taiwan is part of that China. An impossibly bitter pill even in the days of authoritarian one-party rule, acceptance of communist sovereignty has become even more unpalatable now that Taiwan is a multiparty democracy. Beijing recently has shown signs of easing the terms of negotiation, hinting it might not force Taiwan to accept an inferior position as a mere province of communist China. "We do not make unreasonable demands," a senior Taiwan affairs official in the Communist Party, Chen Yunlin, wrote in the official "Cross-strait Relations Journal" in January. "Cross-strait negotiations are equal negotiations held on a one-Chia principle. The name of the central government will not be used, (and) still less will the mainland urge a Taiwanese leader to visit the mainland as Taiwan governor. "There is no trap," Chen added. Taipei's China Post on Sunday noted that Beijing had launched similar "trial balloons" before, only to shoot them down with official denials after Taiwanese hopes had been raised. "Before we start celebrating what appears to be a concession from the mainland side after two years of belligerence and stubbornness, we should wait and see if Beijing comes out with the c ustomary denial," it said. If Beijing affirms that proposed talks truly would be without conditions, the Post said, Taipei should forthrightly insist that negotiations "pick up where they left off" in mid-1995 when China froze what had been promising semiofficial contacts. Analysts generally concur that both sides are ready to tackle a key common objective -- forging an end to the state of hostility that has existed since 1949. Taipei feels it has little to gain from accepting bilateral talks unless Beijing renounces its vow to take Taiwan by force if it pursues independence, something China refuses to do. With Hong Kong now under China's flag and Taiwan's list of diplomatic allies shrinking, analysts say Beijing feels it has Taipei in a tight spot and is of no mind to make concessions. Taipei officially accepts that there is only "one China," but maintains that China is divided country with separate parts ruled by equal sovereigns -- the People's Republic on the mainland and a democratic Republic of China on Taiwan. The only talks that realistically can lead to China's union, Taipei says, are talks between equals that lead to establishment of a mutually acceptable multiparty democracy. (2) U.S., CHINA COMMIT TO NAUTICAL PACT
BEIJING (AP) -- Giving a small nudge toward friendlier military ties, the U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs on Monday signed an unprecedented agreement designed to avoid mishaps at sea, and China opened a new window on its secretive military system. In a brief ceremony at Diaoyutai, a government guest house complex, Gen. Chi Haotian, the Chinese defense minister, told Defense Secretary William Cohen the agreement "marked a new and substantive progress in relations between the two countries and between the two militaries." The two -- Chi in his olive green uniform, Cohen in a dark business suit -- clinked champagne glasses as cameras flashed and aides exchanged smiles and handshakes. Cohen said it was the United States' first formal agreement with the People's Liberation Army. The accord, worked out during President Jiang Zemin's visit to Washington last October, commits both militaries to regular meetings to discuss their sea and air forces and the rules of the nautical road. "As our naval and air forces have more contact, this agreement will increase understanding and reduce the chances of miscalculation," Cohen said. It demonstrates a "maturing relationship" that is gradually improving, he said. During a busy round of meetings and visits Monday, Cohen also led a U.S. delegation at a plenary working meeting with Chi and other top Chinese defense officials. In remarks opening the meeting, Chi said China was interested in developing "more stable and practical" relations with the U.S. armed forces. He expressed "heartfelt gratitude" to Cohen for the military airlift last week of 45 tons of food, blankets, medical supplies and other emergency aid to victims of a major earthquake in China on January 10. "This kind of gesture is simply a preface to the future that will unfold between our two countries," Cohen replied. Cohen's schedule also called for a speech to the Military Academy of Sciences, a meeting with Foreign Minister Qian Qichen and a dinner in honor of Chi. He was to meet Jiang on Tuesday morning before flying to Tokyo for the sixth stop on a seven-nation tour of East Asia that began Jan. 10. Cohen's visit to China is the first by an American secretary of defense since 1994. (3) CHINA, U.S. SIGN MILITARY COOPERATION AGREEMENT
BEIJING (CNN) -- The United States and China signed a military agreement Monday that for the first time will allow the Pentagon to consult directly with the Chinese military in the event of an incident at sea. On the same day, visiting U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen was given unprecedented access to an air defense command center. Observers said both moves signal warming relations between the two long-time adversaries. The maritime cooperation agreement, signed by Cohen and his Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Chi Haotian, is aimed at avoiding naval incidents in the Pacific. The pact commits both sides to regular meetings to discuss their sea and air forces and the rules of the nautical road. Cohen said it was Washington's first formal agreement with China's People's Liberation Army. "As our naval and air forces have more contact, this agreement will increase understanding and reduce the chances of miscalculation," Cohen said. It demonstrates a "maturing relationship" between the two countries, he added. Chi said the agreement "serves the fundamental interests of our two peoples and also contributes to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large." The need for such "rules-of-the-road" naval arrangements was driven home by an encounter between the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and a Chinese submarine in international waters in 1996, analysts said. In that year, the two navies came eye-to-eye when the United States sent two aircraft carriers to waters near Taiwan, where China was conducting military maneuvers. No Beijing technology for Iran In a speech to the Academy of Military Science, Cohen said Chi also assured him in a meeting earlier Monday that China would not export anti-ship cruise missiles or nuclear technology to Iran. President Jiang Zemin gave President Bill Clinton the same assurance during a summit meeting in Washington last fall. The United States fears Iran clandestinely is developing a nuclear weapons capability and that it might use Chinese-made anti-ship cruise missiles to disrupt oil commerce in the Persian Gulf, a conduit for much of the West's oil imports. Cohen said a disruption of the flow of oil from the Gulf would hurt China, too. "Should that disruption occur through the use of weapon technology provided by China, it clearly would also have a damaging political effect on China's relations with many countries around the world, including the United States," he said. The meeting was congenial and filled with praise from both sides Cohen also said Washington was maintaining the current ban on arms sales to China. That ban was imposed after Beijing's military crackdown on student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. China wants to buy engines and spare parts for about two dozen unarmed U.S. Blackhawk helicopters it purchased in the early 1980s. Cohen shown key command center Cohen and 14 senior U.S. officials became the first American officials ever taken to a formerly secret Air Defense Command Center in Beijing. The facility tracks thousands of aircraft in the region daily and can be used to coordinate defense by a number of regional centers against missile or air attack, Chinese officials told the visitors. "It was an interesting mixture of old and new" technology, said one U.S. official, who asked not to be identified. "They (the Chinese) were fairly comfortable with exploring issues (questions from Cohen and others) in an open manner," he told reporters. While the facility had some computers and other up-to-date equipment, "I could smell vacuum" tubes, the official said, referring to technology widely in use years ago to power computers. The center appeared to be all above ground and Cohen was admitted through a lightly guarded gate. Among the visiting party were Adm. Joseph Prueher, who commands America's Asia-Pacific forces, and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Stanley Roth. Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. (4) COHEN SEES BETTER MILITARY TIES WITH CHINA
BEIJING, Jan 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Defence Secretary William Cohen, arriving in China for talks with government leaders, said on Saturday that military ties were improving steadily between the two countries. But he also told reporters flying with him from Thailand for a three-day visit that he would raise questions about China's pledge to stop selling anti-ship cruise missiles to Iran and stressed that Washington was not yet ready to sell arms to Beijing. "The answer is obviously yes," Cohen said when asked aboard his aircraft if his visit signalled a growing level of military cooperation following last October's Washington summit between Presidents Jiang Zemin and Bill Clinton. "I think that building upon the momentum that President Clinton had with Jiang Zemin is a very good feeling," he added, noting that he would be the first U.S. defence secretary to be allowed to visit a secret underground air defence centre in Beijing. Cohen will meet Jiang on Tuesday and will sign agreements with Defence Minister Chi Haotian to increase military personnel exchanges between the two countries this year and next and to prevent clashes or accidents at sea between the U.S. and Chinese navies. The secretary said he would seek clarification of China's indication at the summit that it would stop selling C-801 and C-802 cruise missiles to Iran. He would seek to establish whether this meant sales would stop immediately or whether previously signed deals would be completed. Cohen, who is on the fifth leg of a seven-nation tour of East Asia to stress the case for U.S. engagement in the economically troubled region, said he was pleased with increasing openness between Washington and Beijing on miitary budgets and strategic interests. "I thnk that helps to tear down some of the distrust and suspicion. They are a country that is coming out of a period of being very close and insular into a new world," he told reporters. "We are very open and we are demanding, or we are requesting, that they be open." Senior Pentagon officials said Cohen's visit to the underground air defence centre on Monday was a breakthrough in openness by the Chinese military and that he might be the first American ever allowed into the facility. Cohen said he hoped military ties between Washington and Beijing, a spearhead for cooperation in other areas, would continue to improve but that the United States was not yet ready to transfer military technology or arms to the People's Liberation Army, the world's largest. "I think that we have to take our relationship step by step -- not rush in before we are satisfied that we have a very solid basis for having any kind of technology exchange," he told reporters. A senior U.S. defence official travelling with Cohen said China gave a verbal commitment at the summit that it had "no intention" of continuing to sell the anti-ship cruise missiles to Iran, which the United States fears could use them against shipping in the Gulf. "We want to make that a definite promise by the Chinese," the official added. In addition to talks with Jiang, Chi and other top civilian and military officials, Cohen will make a speech at a Chinese military university before leaving Beijing on Tuesday for Japan and South Korea. He earlier visited Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand on one of the longest trips by a defence secretary in years to assure U.S. allies in Asia that the United States remains a friend even as Asia is going through a major financial crisis. U.S. officials said both the Pentagon and the People's Liberation Army would improve relations by frankly discussing mutual security interests, military transparency, arms proliferation, human rights and other issues. "I think the most surprising part of the relationship, particularly on the military side of the house, is how rapidly the relationship has improved in such a short period of time," said one official privately. They noted that ties between the two militaries, which have taken sharp up and down turns over the past two decades, were dangerously non-existent during a tense March 1996 crisis in the Taiwan Strait. That face-off saw Washington send two aircraft carriers to the region as China held military exercises in what Washington said was an attempt by Beijing to influence presidential elections on Taiwan. China regards Taiwan as a maverick province. (5) CHINA'S DEFENSE CHIEF WANTS 'STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP' WITH U.S.
BEIJING (AP) -- China's defense chief welcomed U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen to Beijing on Sunday with a military honors ceremony and an assurance that communist China wants a "strategic partnership" with the United States. "China will do its very best in order to achieve the goal establishing a constructive, strategic partnership between the two countries," Gen. Chi Haotian said in a toast to Cohen's delegation at a dinner in the Great Hall of the People. Earlier Chi was the host at a formal welcoming for Cohen in a chilly hall at a military museum, where the two defense chiefs reviewed a Chinese military honor guard. Cohen spent most of Sunday resting and preparing for a full day of meetings Monday and for an unprecedented visit to an air defense command center. On Tuesday, before leaving, Cohen is scheduled to meet with President Jiang Zemin. In his remarks at the opening of Sunday night's dinner at the Great Hall of the People, Cohen said Jiang, in his visit to Washington last November, "certainly reflected a degree of harmony that our countries now enjoy." "But harmony involves more than simple ceremony and celebrations," Cohen said. "It involves action as well." As an example of positive Chinese action, Cohen cited China's cooperation over the past year in helping U.S. teams recover the remains of American fliers whose bomber crashed in a remote area of southern China during World War II. "Today we have Chinese and American teams who are working together to discover and find and to bring the remains back to the United States," Cohen said. "That is just another example of the harmony, the cooperation, the great spirit that exists between our two countries." Neither Chi nor Cohen mentioned any of the issues of contention between China and the United States, although some of those are expected to come up in meetings Monday and Tuesday. Among them is a U.S. desire for China to clarify its previous statements about ending sales of anti-ship cruise missiles to Iran. On Monday morning Cohen was scheduled to visit an air defense command center outside Beijing. American officials who arranged the visit said it was the first time a person who was not a Chinese citizen was allowed to visit the command center. American reporters traveling with Cohen were to be excluded. A U.S. official speaking privately said that until shortly before Cohen started his Asia trip last week the Chinese denied that the command center existed. He said the address of the site was provided to U.S. officials less than one week ago. (6) MOSLEM EXILES SAY FIGHT AGAINST CHINA RULE GOES ON
ALMATY, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A spokesman for a Moslem exile movement based in the ex-Soviet republic of Kazakhstan said on Monday China had executed 13 Uighur separatists but vowed that their fight for an independent "East Turkestan" would go on. Earlier China's Xinjiang Legal Daily was reported as saying 16 people had been executed on December 29 in the country's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, which borders Kazakhstan and is home to the mainly Moslem Uighur people. "The Chinese authorities shot 13 ethnic Uighurs and three Han Chinese in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi late last month," Mukhiddin Mukhlisi, a spokesman for the United National Revolutionary Front of East Turkestan, told Reuters in the main Kazakh city of Almaty. "The Chinese authorities claimed the Uighurs had been charged with murdering 13 Chinese civil servants in protest against Beijing's repressive policies in Xinjiang," he added. A Chinese court official in Beijing told Reuters China had executed 16 people in Xinjiang for murder and robbery during a wave of anti-Chinese violence. (The official, who declined to be identified, said fewer than half of those executed were Moslems from the Uighur and Hui ethnic minorities.) Mukhlisi said the 13 Uighurs had also been accused of shouting slogans calling for an independent East Turkestan and the departure of ethnic Han Chinese from Xinjiang, a remote, closed region of desert and mountain. Mukhlisi vowed that the Uighurs' struggle for independence would continue. "The Uighur people will not cease their struggle until the Chinese leave our country," he said. Xinjiang is home to a dozen or so Turkic-speaking Moslem groups including the Uighurs. Mukhlisi's organisation is one of several Uighur groups fighting for an independent East Turkestan in Xinjiang. The Front gathers its information by monitoring the official Radio Urumqi and via traders crossing the China-Kazakh border. The Front's newspaper, "Voice of Eastern Turkmenistan," said in a statement faxed to Reuters that the 13 Uighurs had been denied defence lawyers during their trial. It said their families had also been refused entry to the courtroom. After their sentence was read out, the statement said, one of the condemned men, Ali Eisa, jumped up and shouted: "We are not afraid of death. If we die we will become martyrs." In a separate statement, the newspaper said China had drafted 110,000 extra troops into Xinjiang from other parts of China and had carried out a string of arrests in the region's universities and schools. It also quoted a high-ranking regional official as saying the authorities faced growing problems tackling separatist groups. Earlier this month Chinese state media said the authorities planned a crackdown on separatist activity and labour strife in Xinjiang ahead of the lunar New Year holiday in late January. Last year the holiday was marked by disturbances in Xinjiang in which at least 10 people were killed and nearly 150 injured. Quoting a report on Monday from Urumqi radio, Mukhlisi said military and political leaders in the Chinese city had told regional religious representatives they would deal firmly with any separatist activity. Beijing has in the past accused the Uighurs of drawing support from fellow Turkic-speaking Moslems in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, which both share a long border with Xinjiang. Officials in the two former Soviet republics, keen to build closer economic ties with China, deny giving any backing to the Uighur separatists. (7) THE SITUATION WITH AIDS IN CHINA DETERIORATE.
Beijing--the number of people infected with AIDS is estimated to be more than 10 million. " The situation with AIDS disease in China deteriorates. If extreme measures are not taken, than more than 10 million people will be infected with this disease by 2010 year ,"- Arthur Holcombe, BM coordinator in China, said. Prepared by: *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= The World Uyghur Network News electronic newsletter is produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center (ETIC) in cooperation with the Taklamakan Uighur Human Rights Association (USA), and is devoted to the current political, cultural and economic developments in Eastern Turkistan and to the Uyghur people related issues. Eastern Turkistan (Sherqiy Turkistan in Uyghur) is a name used by the indigenous people of the region for their motherland located in what is at present the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic China. The World Uyghur Network News brings information on situation in Eastern Turkistan from the Uyghur and other sources to the attention of the international community. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= EASTERN TURKISTAN INFORMATION CENTER |