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Chinese general in US aiming fresh military ties

WASHINGTON: A senior Chinese army general met Pentagon and State Department officials on Monday, resuming touchy U.S.-China military ties amid charges that he was a Beijing spymaster.

Lt. Gen. Xiong Guangkai visited the Defence and State Departments where he held the first high-level defence talks since Beijing angrily suspended military-to-military contacts in May 1999 after U.S. jets bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

The three days of talks are designed to signal thawing relations, but thorny issues on the agenda include continuing Chinese protests against U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and American concern about Chinese spying and arms proliferation.

Xiong, 60, is deputy chief of staff for the People's Liberation Army and among leaders of the Chinese Communist Party's powerful foreign policy group. But a conservative member of the U.S. Congress charged as Xiong arrived that, as head of intelligence for the PLA, he should be subpoenaed to testify before the Senate Government Affairs Committee.

A committee spokeswoman told Reuters the panel did not plan to call Xiong in response to a request from Republican Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire for testimony on alleged Chinese nuclear arms spying on the United States and funnelling of money from Beijing to President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign.

Xiong, who did not speak to reporters, had breakfast with Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Holum. Then he met at the Pentagon with Undersecretary of Defence for Policy Walter Slocombe and at the State Department with with Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering.

A State Department official, who asked not to be identifed, told Reuters the meetings were useful. "Both sides agreed on the value of this type of exchange and expressed the hope for further improvement in U.S.-PRC (Chinese) relations," he said.

"The discussions covered the current status of the bilateral relationship in general and centred largely around each side's respective regional security concerns, including proliferation issues," he added.

Pentagon officials hope this week's meetings will result in exchange visits by Defence Secretary William Cohen and Chinese Defence Minister Chi Haotian this year to ease tensions and help the two powers confront each other without conflict.

The general also met briefly later in the day with U.S. military Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Henry Shelton before getting down to detailed talks on Tuesday with Slocombe on military-to-military exchanges during the coming year.

Xiong is to meet Cohen on Wednesday at the end of his talks, defence officials said.

Cohen last visited China in January 1998. He planned to do so again in 1999 but that trip was scrapped after Beijing cut military ties on the heels of the May 7 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade by U.S. jets during NATO's air war against Serbia.

U.S. and NATO officials said that was an accident, but China charged it was intentional and the bombing resulted in major anti-U.S. demonstrations in China and a stoning of the American embassy in Beijing.

The United States has said the bombing was a result of the Central Intelligence Agency supplying outdated maps of Belgrade to U.S. mission planners, and Xiong was expected to press for proof that whoever was responsible would be punished, which China demanded.

Among the most controversial issues between the two countries is Taiwan and continuing U.S. arms support for Taipei despite U.S. recognition of Beijing as the sole legitimate government of China.

U.S. officials last week declined to confirm or deny a Washington Times report that Taiwan had asked to buy four sophisticated U.S. Aegis destroyers. Such ships are equipped with the latest high-tech equipment for defence against large numbers of attack aircraft and cruise missiles.

The ships can also be equipped with weapons for use against attacking strategic missiles such as those arrayed by China against Taiwan, but such a sale would be unlikely to include that defence capability.

The State Department official said the Chinese delegation brought up Taiwan. "Pickering and Holum reiterated longstanding U.S. policy on Taiwan, strongly emphasising the need for cross-strait dialogue and peaceful resolution of differences, as well as our commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act," he said. The act provides for U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

Without giving details, Beijing earlier this month said it was seriously concerned over reports that President Bill Clinton planned large arms sales to Taiwan this year ahead of the November U.S. presidential elections.

The China Times newspaper also reported in Taipei in November 1999 that Taiwan was seeking Aegis destroyers, upgraded Patriot and even more advanced air defence missiles, submarines and long-range early warning radar.

Other reports in Taiwan have said that government was looking for long-range AIM-120 air-to-air missiles.-Reuters