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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (210013)	12/14/2001 10:15:19 AM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769669

The only people who oppose missile defense are those who believe that it will be extended to Taiwan. Some people, who are against missile defense, do not realize where there idea to oppose it comes from. China will not engage in an arms race with the US. They saw what happened to the last communist country that tried that. It doesn't exist any more! -- Friday December 14 12:53 AM ET China Says Arms Control Key After U.S. Drops ABM By John Ruwitch BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Jiang Zemin (news - web sites) has called for multilateral efforts to ensure global stability following a U.S. decision to abandon the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and press ahead with a missile defense system. ``China is willing to work with other countries to make efforts to safeguard world peace and stability,'' Jiang, quoted by state media Friday, said in Myanmar, where he was on a state visit as President Bush (news - web sites) announced his decision. ``Under the current situation, it is very important to safeguard the international arms control and disarmament system,'' Jiang added after telephone conversations with Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites). China's Foreign Ministry called Thursday for talks between ''relevant sides'' in pursuit of ``a solution that safeguards the global strategic balance and doesn't harm international efforts at arms control and disarmament.'' Neither Jiang nor the foreign ministry spelled out what China had in mind after Bush gave six-months notice of withdrawing from the ABM Treaty, which Beijing regarded as a cornerstone of the global strategic balance. But Chinese analysts said it appeared Beijing, which fears scrapping the treaty will spark a new arms race, wanted the world's key nuclear powers -- the United States, Russia, China and possibly France and Britain -- to meet on the issue. Washington has said that it wants a missile shield to protect the United States against missile attack from ``rogue states.'' The analysts said that eventually North Korea (news - web sites), Iraq and other such states with missiles could be brought to the table to limit the threat of a sudden attack. ``Maybe these countries could negotiate a new treaty, new agreement, or new mutual understanding concerning missile defense,'' said Li Bin, an arms control expert at Beijing's Tsinghua University. VEHEMENCE DIMINISHED China strongly opposed U.S. withdrawal from the treaty and the building of missile defenses it feared would neuter its own modest nuclear force and be extended to cover arch rival Taiwan. But even ahead of Bush's announcement, Beijing had tempered its vehemence in apparent recognition that nothing could be done to prevent the inevitable. Analysts said the Jiang and Foreign Ministry comments suggested China was trying another tack in hopes of convincing Washington to drop the missile defense plan. But in the meantime, Beijing was likely to step up military spending to adapt its nuclear program to counter the future U.S. missile umbrella. China would respond by making its ballistic missile force more mobile and developing countermeasures to confuse a potential defense system, Chinese analysts said. ``That means more spending, but maybe not that much,'' said Li. DEFENSE SPENDING SOARS China has spent more than a decade modernizing its outmoded military forces and ratcheting up defense spending. In March, the National People's Congress, or parliament, approved a record budget of $17 billion, up nearly 18 percent from a year earlier, a figure Western experts say understates real spending on the military. But the analysts said China lacked the money to engage in a Cold War-style arms race, especially against a crucial trade partner in an era of economic liberalization the Communist Party sees as the key to keeping people happy and itself in power. The United States is the biggest export market and one of the top suppliers of foreign direct investment to China, which joined the World Trade Organization (news - web sites) Tuesday. Relations between Beijing and Washington have been on the mend since a mid-air collision between a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet off southern China on April 1 sent them into a tailspin. Bush and Jiang held a successful summit on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific conference in Shanghai in October. Beijing has backed the U.S.-led war on terrorism, in large part because of its own concerns about Muslim separatists in its far western region of Xinjiang. dailynews.yahoo.com