Bush warned over Taiwan
PRESIDENT Jiang Zemin yesterday warned that improper handling of the Taiwan issue by the United States will be 'very destructive' to relations.
Washington should ensure 'no major twists and turns' would occur again over the question of Taiwan.
The Chinese President was talking yesterday to visiting former US president George Bush, just a day after Beijing voiced its anger over the US issuance of a transit visa to Taiwan Vice-President Li Yuan-zu.
Mr Jiang stressed to Mr Bush the importance of 'healthy and stable' ties after a difficult year.
'The past year was not a quiet year for Sino-US relations,' Mr Jiang told Mr Bush, who is considered 'an old friend' of China.
Mr Jiang urged 'positive joint efforts' to work for 'stable and constructive' bilateral ties.
Relations plunged after Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui was granted a visa to visit the US last June.
Yesterday, Mr Jiang said his meetings with President Bill Clinton in New York in October and with Vice-President Al Gore in Osaka, Japan, in November, were 'fruitful and played positive roles in restoring and improving' relations.
But he noted that the issue of Taiwan was 'the most important and sensitive' question in Sino-US ties.
'The history of the development of Sino-US relations has time and again shown that the Taiwan issue, if not handled properly, will exert a very destructive role on the development of bilateral relations,' Mr Jiang warned.
The President said he hoped the US would strictly abide by the principles set in the three joint communiques between the two countries in handling the Taiwan issue, to ensure no major hiccups would occur again.
Xinhua (the New China News Agency) reported that Mr Bush promised he would do what he could to promote exchanges and co-operation.
Mr Bush said he hoped that the development of relations, which was very important to both sides, would continue in the new year.
Mr Bush reportedly expressed joy that the relations between the two countries had improved after efforts by both sides.
He and his wife, Barbara, were in Beijing yesterday as guests of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation to attend celebrations marking the operation of the country's largest offshore natural gas project, co-developed by the Atlantic Richfield Company of the US and the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company.
He will give a speech on Sino-US relations at a dinner organised by the Asia Society-Hong Kong Centre in the territory tonight.
Meanwhile, premier Li Peng told Mr Bush that China hoped to have more co-operation and less confrontation with the US.
'We have much common ground with the United States but we also have many differences,' he said. 'It is hoped that the common ground will outweigh the disagreements.'
