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Negroponte Says China Mostly 'In Sync' With U.S. on Iran

Council on Foreign Relations

Interviewee: John D. Negroponte, Deputy Secretary of State
Interviewer: Robert McMahon, Deputy Editor

February 4, 2008

The head of the Bush administration’s “senior dialogue” with China, Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte, says he’s confident of Beijing’s support on preventing a nuclear-armed Iran following a recent round of diplomacy. Negroponte says China’s agreement on a third round of UN sanctions against Iran showed that despite some differences, which include China’s investment in Iran’s energy sectors, “by and large China is in sync with us on this issue. And they certainly do not want Iran to become a nuclear-weapons state.” The expected new UN resolution, Negroponte added, is a sign that UN Security Council members remain concerned about Iran’s nuclear ambitions despite the recent U.S. intelligence report saying experts had “high confidence” Tehran halted its nuclear-weapons program in 2003.

China is concerned about Taiwan’s referendum on UN membership next month. It is eager for the United States to press Taiwan further on this. Beyond calling it a provocative act, what is the United States willing to do?

As always in our senior dialogue with China, the question of Taiwan comes up. It is inevitably raised by my Chinese counterparts. They express concern that something might be done unilaterally by Taiwan to alter the status quo. Our position has consistently been that our policy towards Taiwan is guided by the Three Communiqués [past agreements between United States and China establishing principles for addressing differences and broadening cooperation], and by the Taiwan Relations Act. And we believe that the issue across the Taiwan Strait should be resolved by peaceful means. The problem with the referendum is that it could be construed by the world as Taiwan trying to alter the status quo without having mutually agreed on this with the People’s Republic of China. So we think in that sense it is provocative. And we’ve said that publicly.

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Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.