Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
State Department Noon Briefing
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2001, 1:00 P.M.
(ON THE RECORD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
Q: And China? Did the Secretary have a meeting this morning with the
Chinese Ambassador?
MR. BOUCHER: The Secretary met this morning with the Chinese
Ambassador. The timing was - it was a farewell call. The Chinese
Ambassador is returning to Beijing. He is going to assume a senior
position in the Foreign Ministry. So the timing was basically dictated
by his departure.
The Secretary and he discussed the - first, it was a farewell call;
second, they sort of discussed a general outline, some of the issues
in US-China relations. And basically what the Secretary said was along
the lines of what he said in his opening testimony, that we don't see
China as an inevitable foe. There are areas where we can cooperate;
there are areas where we will have differences, and we will be firm
and open about those differences.
The Secretary also made clear that we have a One China Policy, and
that we will follow the communiqués and our other obligations with
regard to China, as well as our obligations to meet the defensive
needs of Taiwan. So they had a broad discussion, I would say an
initial discussion of US-China relationship as Ambassador Li goes back
to Beijing to assume his new position.
Q: Did they discuss NMD or TMD?
MR. BOUCHER: Those came up, among other subjects briefly. No, it was
really a broad range of things, so nothing was discussed in too much
detail, but a number of topics came up.
Q: (Inaudible.)
MR. BOUCHER: Just about a half hour.
Q: - Security Enhancement Act?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think that came up specifically. Obviously, the
issue of Taiwan and arms sales did come up. The Chinese position, I
think, is well known, and Secretary Powell, as he said in his hearing,
said that we would follow the communiqués, we believed in One China,
but that we would also meet the obligations that we have, and the
commitment to meet the legitimate defensive needs of Taiwan.
Q: Did North Korea come up?
MR. BOUCHER: I don't think so, no.
Q: Did he offer any guidance regarding what the US stance might be at
the UN Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva?
MR. BOUCHER: Again, it was broad. A lot of subjects came up. I don't
think that in particular came up. The Secretary did make clear, as he
did in his testimony, that we believe that China needed to follow the
rule of law, that China needed to be, as he said in his testimony, be
exposed to the powerful forces of free enterprise system and
democracy. So he made clear that we would raise human rights issues
with China, and we would raise them frankly.
Q: Richard, did the Secretary raise the attempted suicide in Tiananmen
Square yesterday of Falun Gong members? And in addition, when Taiwan
came up, did the Secretary elaborate on the Bush Administration plans
to support or not to support the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act?
MR. BOUCHER: I think I was just asked that. I don't think that came up
specifically in terms of the act. You can see what he said in
testimony on the subject.
As far as the issue of Falun Gong, yes, that was discussed. I'm not --
I don't think the events that were reported yesterday came up, but let
me tell you what we know and what we don't know, I think, about that
situation there.
I think we have all seen the reports that five practitioners of Falun
Gong have immolated themselves in Tiananmen Square and that one has
died. We don't have independent confirmation. We are certainly aware
of the eyewitness accounts by journalists and news clips. We are
certainly saddened by this incident. The actions that lead to such
results are tragic for all the people involved, most directly those
who are injured and their families.
We note the statements by Falun Gong spokesmen that Falun Gong
teachings oppose violence and suicide. And I would renew our
condemnation of China's crackdown on Falun Gong. I would call on China
to release all those detained or imprisoned for peacefully exercising
their internationally recognized rights to freedom of religion,
freedom of belief and freedom of conscience.
Q: Was that the message that Secretary Powell delivered to Ambassador
Li?
MR. BOUCHER: The message that Secretary Powell delivered was one of
tolerance and rule of law.
Q: So he didn't specifically reiterate --
MR. BOUCHER: He didn't use the press guidance, no. But - (laughter)
-- it was a clear message of the need for tolerance and respect for
law and the rights that people have along the same lines is what I
said.
Q: Richard, did the Chinese ask the United States not to consider a
sale to Taiwan of the Aegis cruisers?
MR. BOUCHER: I'm not going to try to expand too much on this meeting.
They went through a number of topics. None of them were handled in
great detail. I think the Chinese position is known on the issue of
Taiwan arms sales. You can certainly ask them.
I think the positions Secretary Powell stated in the meeting were the
positions that he stated in his testimony, and that's the basic
message of the meeting, that we realize there are issues, we are going
to handle them in accordance with our obligations with the
communiqués. China also needs to act in a way that we cooperate where
we can and where we have our differences, we will be clear about those
as well.
(The briefing was concluded at 1:45 p.m.)
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