>>China Tells U.S. It Will Share Information - Foreign Minister Calls For Any Military Action to Conform to U.N. Charter
Chinese counterterrorism experts will meet U.S. officials Tuesday to share intelligence that might help the Bush administration's war on terrorism, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said yesterday. But Tang cautioned that the anti-terrorism campaign should "respect the United Nations charter and norms of international law."
In a 20-minute meeting with President Bush and an earlier two-hour meeting with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Tang pledged China's support for battling terrorism. In an interview later, he said that "China is also a victim of terrorist attacks," a reference to unrest in China's western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.
The issue of U.S.-China military cooperation to combat terrorists did not come up, Powell and Tang said.
"I made the point to the foreign minister that we would be looking at a complete campaign that would involve going after finances, information, intelligence, law enforcement, and might have a military component," Powell told reporters. "But we did not get into any details of a military component, nor did I ask the Chinese government what their reaction might be, nor did they suggest to me any participation."
In the interview, Tang declined to speculate on China's reaction to any U.S. attacks against suspected terrorists. "I cannot make characterizations in an abstract way," he said.<<
washingtonpost.com |
