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China, US relations 'disturbed'
29/11/2007 16:05 - (SA)
Beijing - China's last-minute cancellation of a US Navy visit to Hong Kong wasn't a misunderstanding, but rather a result of ties with Washington being "disturbed and harmed", the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
Spokesperson Liu Jianchao did not directly say what had prompted the cancellation, although he alluded to recent actions that angered Beijing, including the US Congress honouring the Dalai Lama and US arms sales to Taiwan.
Liu denounced a report that said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told US President George W Bush that barring aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk from entering Hong Kong harbour last week was a misunderstanding.
"The report is not in line with the facts," Liu said at a regular news briefing. He refused to elaborate.
Liu appeared to indicate that China had cancelled the visit deliberately to register its displeasure over US actions, as it has done occasionally with previous Hong Kong port calls.
'Erroneous' actions
China had later reversed its decision denying entry to the USS Kitty Hawk and its escort vessels, but only after the strike group had already left the area. The ships did not turn back to carry out the planned Thanksgiving visit and continued to their homeport in Japan.
"We have all along, on the principle of sovereignty, approved (port calls) on a case by case basis. Out of humanitarian considerations, we agreed to allow the strike group to make a port call," Liu said.
Beijing had earlier refused port entry for two US Navy minesweepers seeking to refuel and find shelter from an approaching storm. The US Defence Department said it was officially protesting the Chinese moves.
Liu said "erroneous" actions of the US had "disturbed and harmed" relations.
He pointed to the US Congress awarding its highest civilian honour to the Dalai Lama last month. Though the Tibetan spiritual leader is lauded in much of the world as a figure of moral authority, Beijing demonises the monk and claims he seeks to destroy China's sovereignty by pushing for independence for Tibet.
Also hurting relations were arms sales to Taiwan, an island which China regards as a renegade province, he said.
'Wrong signals'
The Global Times, a tabloid published by the official Communist Party newspaper People's Daily, cited an unidentified People's Liberation Army senior colonel as blaming Washington's decision to sell Taiwan an anti-missile defence system.
That "obviously sent the wrong signals" to Taiwan's leader, Chen Shui-bian, whom China abhors for his campaign to assert the self-ruling island's independent identity.
"At a time when the US side is seriously harming China's interests, there is no logic under heaven by which China should then be expected to open its heart and embrace him," the newspaper said on Thursday.
- AP
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