Posted on 10/20/2001 11:33:54 AM PDT by t-shirt
Bush, Jiang vow to cooperate in war
The International News (Pakistan)
October 20, 2001
SHANGHAI: US President George W Bush on Friday welcomed China's "firm commitment" to the war on terrorism and publicly downplayed sources of friction with Bejing after his first meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
"There's a firm commitment by this (Chinese) government to cooperate in intelligence matters and to help interdict financing of terrorist organisations," Bush told a joint news conference with Jiang.
China has been sharing intelligence and has sealed its border with Afghanistan amid US-led strikes on the country's Taliban rulers for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden, blamed for September 11 terror strikes on the United States, said a US official, declining to be identified. But Beijing has not explicitly endorsed the US campaign, and Jiang called for restraint even as he emphasised he and Bush were committed to "working together with the rest of the international community to combat terrorism." "We hope that anti-terrorism efforts can have clearly defined targets, and efforts should hit accurately, and also avoid innocent casualties," said Jiang, who also called for the United Nations to "be brought into full play." The anonymous US official said China was not "layering" conditions for its support, that US action had roots in the UN charter's self-defence clause and that the world body would play a central role in rebuilding Afghanistan.
The agreement to fight terrorism appeared to have no spillover benefits for traditional sources of friction between Washington and Beijing, including human rights, arms proliferation and the volatile question of Taiwan.
Jiang said the last issue, if "properly handled" according to bilateral accords, would not blot a shared "bright future." Bush said he had "explained" his views on Taiwan, offering no details. Bush aides later said he had strongly restated his commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act, under which Washington conducts yearly sales of arms to the island.
Taiwan, which China regards as a rebel province, announced earlier on Friday that it was boycotting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in protest at Beijing's "barbaric" refusal to let it send its envoy of choice.
The US leader, in an apparent reference to China's crackdown on Uighur separatists in northwestern Xinjiang province, warned that the war on terrorism "must never be an excuse to persecute minorities." And he stressed "the need to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missile technology."
Bush acknowledged he had left the United States "at a very difficult time", amid a germ warfare scare tied to anthrax-laced letters, worries about possible new attacks and uncertainty about US reprisals for last month's onslaught.
"But this meeting is important because of the campaign against terror, because of the ties between our two great nations, because of the opportunity and hope that trade provides for both our people," said the US leader. Senior US administration officials who declined to be identified said Bush had briefly made the case for his missile defence plan, which China opposes, and was much more forceful on topics including religious freedom and weapons sales.
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Bush, Jiang unite against terrorism
Taipei Times
October 20, 2001
[CLOSING THE RANKS: The fight against terrorism has brought China and the US closer but differences in areas like treatment of minorities and weapons proliferation remain]--AP--(Pictured on Taipei Times Website)
SHANGHAI
US President George W. Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin ) declared themselves partners in the war on terrorism yesterday, although Jiang cautioned that US airstrikes on Afghanistan must be aimed at clearly defined targets to "avoid innocent casualties."
"President Jiang and the government stand side by side with the American people as we fight this evil force," Bush said after his first meeting with his Chinese counterpart.
Bush came to Shanghai at a time when the sometimes volatile Sino-American relations are on the upswing, but both leaders alluded in a joint news conference to lingering differences.
"The war on terrorism must never be an excuse to persecute minorities," Bush said, an apparent reference to China's treatment of the restive Uighur population in China's northwest Xinjiang Province.
Bush said he also stressed the need "to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and missile technology." On Sept. 1, the State Department imposed sanctions on a Chinese arms producer for allegedly selling missile technology to Pakistan in violation of a US-Chinese agreement signed last November.
Jiang predicted a "bright future" for US-Chinese relations so long as the US sticks to bilateral agreements on Taiwan, an issue that has bedeviled ties between Washington and Beijing, off and on, for more than 50 years.
Bush began his first full day in China in 26 years by heading in midmorning from his downtown hotel to a guest house in western Shanghai. Security was unusually tight. No other traffic was permitted along the motorcade route. Groups of pedestrians, most of them expressionless, stood along the intersections.
Bush told Jiang he was impressed by the gleaming metropolis Shanghai has become since he was here in the mid-1970s, when his father headed the US diplomatic mission. Then, Bush said, he could not have imagined "the dynamic and impressive Shanghai of 2001."
Jiang said he made clear to Bush that he is "opposed to terrorism in all of its forms."
At the same time, alluding to the US-led air strikes on Afghanistan that began Oct. 7, Jiang said China hopes "anti-terrorism efforts can have clearly defined targets. And efforts should hit accurately, and also avoid innocent casualties." Some Afghan civilians have been killed in the air campaign.
In praising China's cooperation on terrorism, Bush noted that China has shared intelligence with the US and interdicted financing of terrorist organizations.
"There was no hesitation, there was no doubt they'd stand with our people during this terrible time," he said.
Bush met with Jiang on the eve of the annual APEC summit, which is expected to approve a declaration expressing the readiness of the 21 participants to combat international terrorism.
Jiang also said the UN should play a major role in the effort to bring stability to Afghanistan -- a view fully shared by the Bush administration.
After their initial meeting, Bush and Jiang had a lunch featuring shark's fin, fried lobster, steak and four vegetables.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2001/10/20/story/0000107914
Quite an amazing leap you've made there!! You haven't had many courses in logic, have you?? (Maybe they've had more important things to do than dig up bodies to make you happy). Duhhhhh!!!
Not at all.
I realize the DNC gets lots of attention for brown-bagging it at Buddhist Temples but that also serves to divert attention from the neatly typed invoices, board appointments, advisorships and other means by which the GOP's "public servants" clean up by the millions as Maotais.
The Daddy Party most definitely takes the lead in this realm.
The CIA in the New World Order - Intelligence Challenges Through 2015 (Article From CIA Website) http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3aebc4a26794.htm
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It also admits that globalization will cause more terrorism.
Yet all solutions offered on the CFR/CIA piece are more globalization, centralization, totalitarianism, and freedom and liberty robbing moves.
Speaking at the CEO forum held around the APEC conference in Shanghai, company chairman Jack Smith decribed the Asia Pacific region - especially China – as the only bright spot at the moment for the industry.
"The one country that stands out with growth is China and the vehicle market here is very strong at the moment. This market has the greatest potential of any market," Smith said, adding that GM’s sales in the country – measured at more than 30,000 units last year – are on course to double in 2001. "Obviously next year will be another great growth year for us because we only introduced the Sail [a Corsa-badsed small car] in May," Smith said.
GM's manufacturing presence in China is now substantial, comprising a US$1.5 billion joint venture in Shanghai and a US$230 million light truck venture in northern China which began regular production this year.
Smith said that GM currently holds a 5% share in the China market and remains confident of capturing a 10% share of the regional Asia-Pacific market in the medium term. If affiliate operations are included (e.g. Isuzu), the GM group will hold a 20% share of the Asia-Pacific market before too long, he went on. "We are taking market share this year. Our sales in the Asia Pacific and the market is down slightly, so our market share versus last year is up."
Hammered by slump in US demand, GM reported a third-quarter net loss of US$368 million and warned of weaker fourth quarter earnings. "Our judgment was that we would skate through it and not touch down on negative growth, but that changed dramatically after September 11," Smith said. "In my judgement, we're in recession, which is technically two successive quarters of negative growth."
Report From AFP 20oct01
LONDON: China paid suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden several million dollars for access to unexploded US cruise missiles following an attack on his bases three years ago, according to a newspaper report here.
The Guardian reported that an alleged senior agent of bin Laden's al Qaeda network in Europe told an associate, in a secretly taped conversation, that Chinese businessmen had paid $US10 million ($A19.69 million) to study the missiles. Bin Laden is the prime suspect for the September 11 terrorist assault on New York and Washington which claimed the lives of some 5,500 people.
Following the 1998 attack, carried out in reprisal for the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, reports suggesting China had acquired two unexploded Tomahawk missiles were attacked as "groundless" by Beijing, the broadsheet said.
The Guardian report came the day after US President George W Bush, in a joint press conference with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, welcomed the Asian nation's "firm commitment" to the war on terrorism, although Beijing has yet to explicitly endorse the US-led campaign.
The daily said that on March 9, a 32-year-old Libyan terrorist suspect met the head of al Qaeda's Italian cell, Sami Ben Khemais, in a Milan flat and told him of China's involvement in the missiles.
The suspect, who was arrested in Munich on Wednesday at the request of the Italian authorities in connection with al Qaeda, told Ben Khemais: "With these weapons, he (bin Laden) has boosted his financial resources. From every part of the world businessmen who hate Americans have come to study American missile strategy.
"In particular, businessmen have come from China. He works a great deal with China. He's got good relations with them," added the suspect, named Ben Heni by the paper.
The Guardian said that unknown to the two men, the flat had been bugged by Italian anti-terrorist officers.
Was one of those vegetables ketchup?
American Foreign Policy is about to be fatefully transformed; I think people fret excessively now about past idiocies.
Even many sloppy liberals have sobered up; don't sell America short!
Most proponents of globalization say that increased terrorism is inevitable; those same proponents also say that globalization is inevitable. At some level, faulty reasoning is to blame; at another is the refusal to acknowledge that man has limitations.
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