- BEIJING (Agence France Presse) - China on Tuesday warned the United States
against including Taiwan in a Theater Missile Defense (TMD) plan for Asia
or selling it sophisticated weapons.
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- Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi told
a news conference that plans to integrate Taiwan into the TMD program and
the continued sale of weapons to it were "outright violation"
of international laws and the three Sino-U.S. joint communiqués
on the subject.
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- "It will also erect obstacles to
the improvement of bilateral relations (with China). Such practices do
not serve the security and stability of Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region,"
Sun said.
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- "We hope the US government can proceed
from the overall situation of bilateral relations ... not to transfer TMD
and relevant technology equipment to Taiwan and not to sell sophisticated
weapons to them so as not to harm bilateral relations," Sun said.
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- The U.S. Congress has passed a resolution
asking Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to jointly finance the expensive TMD
project.
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- The U.S. has not officially offered Taiwan
the chance to join the program and Taiwan has not officially expressed
any interest.
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- The United States and Japan issued a
joint statement in New York on Sept. 20, apparently agreeing to push the
TMD system, after North Korea launched a rocket on Aug. 31 that flew over
part of Japan.
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- Japanese government officials later insisted
no final decision had been made but said Tokyo would continue to work
towards possible joint research on the defense system, with the aim of
countering future threats from Pyongyang.
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- Sun reiterated that China was concerned
over the political and military implications of Japan's move and its possible
effect on regional and global security.
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- "We hope that the Japanese side
can stick to a purely defensive defense policy and to its peaceful development
role," he said.
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- China strongly opposes arms sales to
Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province. ( (c) 1998 Agence France
Presse)
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