May 12, 1999
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| May 12, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| China China studying G-8 plan: Chernomyrdin By David Healy, Michael Bleby and Philip Hampsheir Bloomberg News BEIJING - China is studying a peace proposal for Kosovo that would include an international force in the Yugoslav province, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Russian envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin. ''The Chinese side is clear that it is necessary to stop the bombing and start peaceful negotiations,'' AFP quoted Chernomyrdin as saying. Chernomyrdin was speaking after talks with Chinese leaders to discuss Kosovo peace proposals that were agreed upon last week by the Group of Seven industrialized countries plus Russia. The support of China, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is needed to support any plan that has UN backing. China said it would not consider any of the G-8 conditions for peace unless the North Atlantic Treaty Organization immediately stops air strikes on Yugoslavia, AFP said. ''The precondition for negotiations is an immediate halt to NATO air strikes, otherwise there's nothing to be discussed,'' AFP quoted foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao as saying. Zhu repeated China's demands for a full investigation into the bombing of the embassy Friday, AFP reported. ''Three missiles hit the Chinese embassy from different angles. For NATO to describe it in a dismissive way as a mistake cannot at all be convincing,'' Zhu said. A Chinese official in Washington said China wouldn't be satisfied without a thorough explanation. ''I don't think people should regard it simply as an accident and a mistake without carrying out a substantial, thorough, comprehensive investigation,'' said Liu Xiaoming, China's first minister to the Chinese embassy in Washington, in a Cable News Network report cited by AFP. Chernomyrdin left China about four p.m. local time Tuesday after holding meetings with Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, President Jiang Zemin and Vice-Prime Minister Qian Qichen, AFP reported. Repairing relations between NATO countries and China will be ''a very serious challenge,'' after the embassy attack, UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said, on British Broadcasting Corp. radio early Tuesday. While repairing relations would be difficult, ''it's not in the interests of Beijing to turn its back'' on progress the UK and China have made in their relationship over past years, Cook said. Trade ministers of the U.S., European Union, Japan and Canada meeting in Tokyo said the Belgrade embassy bombing wouldn't influence the decision on China's admission to the World Trade Organization, AFP reported. ''Politically, the NATO air strike accident and our efforts to expand world trade may be linked, but we have to negotiate China's entry into WTO separately from the erroneous attack,'' AFP quoted Japan's trade minister, Kaoru Yosano, as saying. Meantime, the Clinton administration told Congress Monday that it approved the export to China of technology that would permit the launching of a communications satellite aboard a Chinese rocket next month, The New York Times reported. It is less than a week since a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reported that China's ballistic missile capability was boosted after lax monitory of U.S.-made satellites on board Chinese rockets, the newspaper said. Clinton told Congress that the export would not harm U.S. national security or improve China's military capability in space, the Times said. Presidential approval is required under a law passed last year to safeguard sensitive technology transfers. | |||||||||
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