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Nailene Chou

Arms deal is hurting ties, but 'China issues' won't figure in US election

Hardly a day passes without mainland leaders warning senior US officials to honour Washington's commitment to the 'one-China' policy and to avoid sending  the wrong signals to Taiwan.

President Hu Jintao   on Tuesday told a US Senate delegation led by Ted Stevens  that China hoped the US would honour its promises on the Taiwan issue.

The same message was delivered on Monday by National People's Congress chairman Wu Bangguo .

In a phone call with US President George W. Bush last Friday, Mr Hu said China would never tolerate Taiwan's independence.

The mainland has always put the Taiwan issue at the heart of Sino-American relations, and the relentless badgering shows the relations are on a collision course, analysts said.

Gone are the days when the US was trying to find common ground with China on the global anti-terrorism battle and co-operation on resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff, which prompted US Secretary of State Colin Powell  to say that relations between the two countries were at their best in 30 years.

'The relations with the US are heading to a low point,' said Niu Xinchun , a specialist at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

The deterioration was triggered by Beijing's dissatisfaction with the US push to sell arms to Taiwan shortly after President Chen Shui-bian won a second term, he said.

The proposed weapons deal - which includes anti-missile systems, submarines and destroyers - is valued at US$18 billion.

The US government said the deal had been under negotiation since 2001, but Beijing considers it an overt challenge and has protested to US Vice-President Dick Cheney, who visited the mainland in April, and to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice last month.

The warnings were taken seriously by the Bush administration, which does not want military tension in the Taiwan Strait to escalate in the months before the November presidential election, a diplomatic source said.

With recent large-scale military drills staged by the mainland and Taiwan - and the US in the western Pacific - there was a need for more communication to avoid miscalculation leading to conflict, he said.

Last month the US House of Representatives passed a resolution to reiterate its commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, in which the US promised to sell defensive weapons to Taiwan.

Relations with China are unlikely to figure high on the political agenda for Mr Bush or his challenger John Kerry.

The US election campaign will focus on Iraq, North Korea and terrorism, Mr Niu said.



Taiwan issue sends Sino-US relations to a low point