China pressures U.S. over Taiwan arms sales

By Jason Szep

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (Reuters) - China's envoy to the United States stepped up pressure on Washington on Thursday to abandon arms sales to Taiwan following recent pro-independence comments from Taiwan's president.

While stressing that Sino-U.S. relations "continue to make new progress," Beijing's envoy to Washington said the United States was sending the wrong signals to independence forces in Taiwan, a territory China claims as its own.

"If you are serious about your commitment to one China, you will stop selling weapons to Taiwan," Zhou Wenzhong said in response to a question at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, after giving a speech there.

He chided Washington for selling arms to Taiwan several times in a one-hour appearance at the Ivy League school. "Stop selling weapons to Taiwan and stop sending any wrong signals to Taiwan's independence forces," he said in his speech. "The civil war status between Beijing and Taiwan is not yet over."

China views democratic Taiwan as a renegade province, and has not ruled out the use of force to prevent the self-ruled island from formally declaring independence.

Tensions across the Taiwan Strait were strained this month when Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian said on March 4 that the island should pursue independence and change its official title, "the Republic of China".

China denounced Chen's statement as "deliberate provocation" and "a dangerous step." Zhou said Chen had become more "reckless and dangerous in pursuing Taiwan independence through the so-called constitutional reform."

Although it switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, recognizing "one China," Washington is obliged by the Taiwan Relations Act to help the island defend itself.

Angering China, the Pentagon told Congress this month it had approved the possible sale of up to $421 million in missiles to Taiwan for use on its F-16 fighter jets.

Taiwan is also seeking to buy around 60 advanced Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16 C/D fighter aircraft to replace more than 40 mothballed F-5E fighter jets and other aging aircraft.

China has an estimated 700 combat aircraft within unrefueled operational range of Taiwan, the Pentagon's 2006 annual report on China's military said. The number of Taiwan's aircraft is estimated at 330.

Before Zhou spoke, dozens of students protested outside against China's ties to Sudan, which human rights groups blame for continuing war crimes against civilians in Darfur.

Despite heavy U.S. sanctions which have prevented much Western investment, Sudan's economy has benefited from Chinese and Asian funds with an expected growth rate of up to 13 percent this year.

Responding to a student's question, Zhou said the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, had told him in recent talks that conditions on the ground in Darfur were improving.