||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| 2001-08-29 06:37:05 Nortel Networks signs 8 mln usd network upgrade deal with China Telecom HONG KONG (AFX-ASIA) - Nortel Networks Corp said it has signed an 8 mln usd agreement with China Telecommunications Corp to upgrade the latter's multiservice backbone networks in Yunnan and Heilongjiang provinces and Tianjin and Chongqing municipalities.
In a statement, the company said the upgraded networks will enable China Telecom to offer advanced ATM, frame relay, internet protocol, virtual private networks and other end-to-end data services from a single, high capacity platform.
China Telecom plans to replace its existing backbone switching equipment in its networks with Nortel Networks solutions, it said.
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World Reporter All Material Subject to Copyright
By Bill Gertz
The Washington Times
Thursday, May 10, 2001
A U.S. surveillance plane flying near China´s coast four years ago picked up secret communications on a meeting between a senior Chinese Communist official and an Irish leftist linked by U.S. intelligence to counterfeit U.S. currency, according to a classified National Security Agency report.
The Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance flight in late May 1997 revealed the meeting between Sean Garland, president of the Dublin-based Workers´ Party, a communist political party, and Cao Xiaobing. Miss Cao was described in the report as bureau director of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing´s official office for supporting foreign communist parties.
The report, labeled "top secret," states that Mr. Garland was the managing director of GKG Comms International Ltd., a Dublin company, and noted that Miss Cao and the Irish communist discussed "unidentified business opportunities" during a meeting.
"Garland is suspected of being involved with counterfeiting U.S. currency, specifically, the Supernote, a high-quality counterfeit $100 bill," the report said.
Mr. Garland confirmed in a statement issued last week in London´s Sunday Times that he met Miss Cao in Beijing.
"This was in a public place in offices of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China," Mr. Garland stated. "Afterwards we had dinner in a hotel."
The statement did not say what was discussed at the meeting, but a spokesman for the Workers´ Party told the newspaper the discussions were "political" in nature.
According to the Sunday Times, Mr. Garland was a leading member of the Irish Republican Army in the 1960s and early 1970s. A 1986 Russian document made public by dissident writer Vladimir Bukovsky stated that Mr. Garland wrote a "Dear Comrade" letter to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev asking Moscow for the equivalent of $1.42 million to fund Workers´ Party activities.
"Ten years ago it was the KGB and the Workers´ Party which were accused of plotting all kinds of subversion," Mr. Garland said in his statement last week.
He said the letter to Moscow "has been going the rounds for many years now" and "it is well past its sell-by date."
Mr. Garland also confirmed that he was director of GKG Comms, a firm "involved in sourcing power projects in China and Eastern European Companies." He said the company is "no longer trading."
Miss Cao, a leading Communist official involved in youth issues and arms control matters for decades, later visited Ireland at the invitation of the Workers´ Party.
She headed a delegation of Chinese Communist Party officials, Mr. Garland said.
According to the Sunday Times, the Workers´ Party in the past was linked to forged currency, specifically fake 5-pound notes. A party spokesman said Mr. Garland´s meeting with Miss Cao did not include any discussions of counterfeiting. The spokesman dismissed the claims of illegal activity, saying counterfeiting accusations against the Workers´ Party have appeared "every so often."
Intelligence officials said the report highlights China´s support for foreign communist parties, a role once played by the now-defunct Soviet Union.
In addition to Ireland´s communists, Beijing is also backing Japan´s Communist Party and other parties once supported by Moscow, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Agence France-Presse
Thursday, May 10, 2001
HONG KONG, May 10 (AFP) - There was no need for Beijing and Washington to be enemies, former US president Bill Clinton told a global forum here Thursday a day after talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
Clinton said the world would be a better place if they were partners.
"Of course there are difficulties and bumps on the road," he said, citing recent strained ties following the collision between a Chinese fighter jet and a US spy plane, and US arms sales to Taiwan.
"The important thing it seems to me is not to assume that the relationship is necessarily adversarial. The world would be a better place in the next 50 years if we were partners."
Clinton met Jiang for about an hour Wednesday but did not refer to the talks in his closing address at the Fortune Global Forum, which covered topics ranging from global warming to AIDS.
His spokesman was quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying the pair enjoyed "a wide-ranging discussion on US-China relations".
China's official Xinhua news agency described the meeting as friendly and quoted Jiang as saying the two countries should promote a "healthy and stable" relationship.
Under Clinton's administration, Washington pushed ahead with a policy of constructive engagement with Beijing and described China as a "strategic partner."
But the new team of George W. Bush has taken a tougher line, describing China as a "strategic competitor."
Clinton also acknowledged the "different perceptions of political and religious freedoms" with China.
The forum of corporate heavyweights here has been marred by anti-China protests amid claims of police brutality and a Beijing-initiated blacklist to deny entry to known activists from the Falungong spriritual group.
Australia joined the United States and Britain in questioning why several of its nationals were refused entry to the territory ahead of the forum.
A spokeswoman at the department of foreign affairs in Canberra said Australia was seeking clarification from the Hong Kong government.
"It is important for Hong Kong to avoid actions that could be seen as inconsistent with the freedoms of association and expression that are guaranteed in Hong Kong," she said.
More than 100 Falungong practitioners have been refused entry in the past few days, according to the group. Hong Kong officials have defended the territory's right to keep out "undesirable elements."
Protestors complained of being kept out of sight of forum delegates but Financial Secretary Antony Leung said a balance had to be struck to allow the conference to go ahead without disruption.
But he added: "I believe the freedom of information and freedom of expression is very important for a financial centre."
About 30 Falungong followers staged their final meditation exercise as part of a series of protests urging Jiang to relax a mainland crackdown on the spiritual group, which is legal in Hong Kong.
The Chinese president's visit was marred by a variety of protests, including by activists demanding China revise its verdict that the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre was a legitimate crackdown on an insurrection.
A noisy demonstration by supporters greeted the appearance in court of three of the activists, members of the radical April 5 group, who clashed with police on Tuesday.
They had attempted to present Jiang with a mock coffin symbolising the death of democracy in China.
The trio were released on bail after being charged with affray and injuring police officers. One of them had tried to kill himself in custody using a ballpoint pen.