China Daily > Taiwan 'most important' to US relations

Taiwan 'most important' to US relations: "Taiwan 'most important' to US relations
By Hu Xiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-09-01 00:00
China and the United States share important common interests in opposing Taiwan independence and safeguarding peace in the Taiwan Straits, said Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Zhou Wenzhong.
'Currently, what is most important for the United States is to translate into reality its commitment to the one-China policy and opposition to Taiwan independence, in particular to stop upgrading relations with Taiwan and selling it advanced weapons,' Zhou said Tuesday in a luncheon speech at a seminar held by the China Reform Forum, a think-tank of China's Central Party School and the US Rand Corporation, a non-profit research organization.
Speaking to 70-plus experts and scholars from China and the United States, Zhou said Sino-US ties have consistently developed positive momentum although the US presidential election and the Taiwan island election this year have complicated Sino-US relations.
'The two countries have continued to make progress in exchanges and co-operation in economics, trade, anti-terrorism, law-enforcement, non-proliferation and other fields,' Zhou said, noting that the two sides have continued to engage in close consultations and co-ordination in promoting the reconstruction of Iraq and the six-party talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.
Just two days before Zhou's speech, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and US Secretary of State Colin Powell exchanged views on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue during a telephone conversation. This is their 13th such conversation this year.
Zhou said that while he is pleased with the significant progress in bilateral relations"