Taiwan remains sticking point in Sino-US ties

By Cui Xiaohuo and Peng Kuang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-28 08:50

Sino-US military talks, restarted during the Obama administration, on Friday saw China urging US to stop arms sales to Taiwan and remove barriers before the two militaries can move on with their relationship.

"The Taiwan issue remains China's core interest and concern," said Qian Lihua, director of the foreign affairs office of the Defense Ministry and co-chair of the just-concluded Defense Policy Coordination Talks in Beijing.

"China wants the US to stop arms sales to Taiwan and pushes the peaceful ties across the (Taiwan) Straits with practical measures," said Qian, who co-chaired the talks with David Sedney, US deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia and Pacific security affairs.

The talks, the fifth since 2005, are a preparation for the more formal Defense Consultative Talks attended by the two nations' deputy defense ministers.

China halted all military exchanges with the US last October following the Bush administration's $6.5 billion Taiwan arms deal, which includes Apache attack helicopters and Patriot missiles. It was the biggest arms sale to the island since China and the US agreed in 1982 that the US would gradually reduce its arms sales to Taiwan.

Among the exchanges put off by China include a US visit by a senior Chinese general and other similar visits as well as port calls by naval vessels. China also indefinitely postponed meetings on humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Saying his tour "followed the footsteps" of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week to Beijing, Sedney was quoted by Xinhua as saying the two sides must increase communications to reduce the chance of strategic misunderstanding.

However, China insisted on Friday that Sino-US military ties "remains difficult" for now. "Frankly speaking, it will take a long time to restore our military exchanges as not a single obstacle in military ties has been removed so far," Qian told Xinhua.

Chinese military officials also suggested that the two sides make mutual respect and trust the basis of bilateral military ties.

"The change reflects the reality of recent setbacks in Sino-US military ties," said Major-General Luo Yuan, a military expert with the Academy of Military Sciences.

"But China has taken this opportunity to fully express its concerns, so does the US," he told China Daily on Friday.

Among Chinese participants of the meeting are mid-level officers from the army, navy and air force and military scholars, while the US delegation includes officials from the Defense Department, the State Department, the Pacific Command and the Joint Chief of Staff.

Friday's talks concluded the Beijing meeting, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.

Sedney will meet with Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the military official who will host the Defense Consultative Talks if scheduled in the future.