Taiwan tops agenda for likely new envoy to US
Zhou Wenzhong would hammer home importance of issue
Foreign Vice-Minister Zhou Wen-zhong, tipped as China's next ambassador to Washington, is seizing every opportunity to underscore Taiwan's importance in Sino-US relations.
Concerned that Washington has not grasped the significance of the issue, Mr Zhou recently compared the split between Taipei and Beijing to the American civil war in the 19th century.
A veteran US affairs expert in the Foreign Ministry, Mr Zhou, 59, studied at the London School of Economics and served in the Chinese embassy in Washington after the two countries normalised diplomatic relations.
Mr Zhou has also served as vice-consul general in San Francisco, consul general in Los Angeles and a minister counsellor in Washington. He also served as ambassador to Australia before returning to the Foreign Ministry. As China is the largest developing country and the US is the most powerful developed nation, Mr Zhou believes they have much to gain from their complementary strengths.
Although bilateral relations are often fraught with tension over Taiwan, Mr Zhou said in April that Beijing had scored well from its dealings with the US. The normalisation of diplomatic ties was a triumph in itself, and the US had by and large stuck to the one-China principle and the three communiques signed between the two sides.
'We will continue safeguarding the political foundation of Sino-American relations. Of course, this requires efforts from both sides. We hope the US will not underestimate the sensitivity and importance of the Taiwan question in relations between our two countries,' he said.
Mr Zhou recalls working as an interpreter in 1984 for Deng Xiaoping , who told visitors from the Washington-based Centre for Strategic International Studies think-thank that Beijing's proposal for reunification was reasonable as Taiwan could continue with its capitalist system. This was the first time Deng mentioned the 'one country, two systems' model for reunification.
Mr Zhou is set to swap posts with Yang Jiechi, 54, who sources in the Foreign Ministry say is likely to succeed Li Zhaoxing as foreign minister at the National People's Congress in 2008.
Although the Foreign Ministry and the US embassy in Beijing declined to confirm Mr Zhou's appointment, sources said it was likely his name would be officially put forward for the job before the second Bush administration took office in January.
