Wen seeks reassurance on Taiwan
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Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's policies are causing alarm in Beijing.
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BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China's Premier Wen Jiabao, on a four-day visit to the United States, will seek reassurances from Washington that it will rein in rival Taiwan and face criticism of Beijing's trade and currency policies.
Wen, who arrived on Sunday in snow-swept New York and heads on to Washington and Boston, was prepared to talk tough on recent U.S. trade sanctions but would offer a broader message stressing economic cooperation, analysts and officials said.
Chinese officials publicly underlined that overall relations were good ahead of the visit by Wen, the highest ranking Chinese leader to visit the United States since March when Beijing wrapped up a sweeping power transition to a younger generation headed by President Hu Jintao.
"Through the joint efforts of both sides, my visit will contribute to further development of the constructive and cooperative relations between the two countries," Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying in a statement at the airport.
But Taiwan has emerged as a cloud over ties between the world's most populous nation and its most powerful, one that risks undermining Chinese support for U.S. efforts like the war on terror and the North Korean nuclear crisis, analysts said.
Tensions have risen across the Taiwan strait since last month, when the island's parliament debated and then passed a law allowing referendums, and President Chen Shui-bian has said he would push for a "defensive referendum" in March polls.
Chinese military officials have threatened war if Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a breakaway province, moved toward independence -- even at the risk of boycotts of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and economic recession.
Seeking to ease tensions, a U.S. envoy, James Moriarty, director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council, carried a message to Taipei last week that Washington did not want to see an independence referendum take place, administration officials said.
Chen backed off an independence vote, but on Saturday a presidential spokesman said he plans a referendum calling on China to withdraw ballistic missiles aimed at the island and renounce the use of force against it.
Vice Foreign Minister Zhou Wenzhong has said Wen, who meets U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday in Washington, would seek a more forceful statement that the United States clearly "opposed" Taiwan steps towards independence.
That would mark a nuanced but significant shift from the U.S. line that it "does not support" independence moves, analysts said, a position U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell reiterated on Friday.
"If the U.S. makes a clear statement opposing Taiwan independence, then it will help Sino-U.S. relations gain stability and development," said Jia Qingguo, professor at Peking University of International Studies.
"But if the U.S. does not even support China on the core issues it is most concerned with, China will have a hard time fully cooperating with the United States in other areas."
Ties also are being tested by China's swelling trade surplus with the United States, set to top $120 billion this year. U.S. officials argue Beijing keeps its yuan currency artificially weak, giving its exports unfair advantage at the expense of U.S. jobs.
Wen is likely to talk tough on U.S. moves last month to cap some imports of Chinese textiles and impose tariffs on televisions.
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Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
