China, wary about U.S., seeks warmer SE Asia ties

China, wary about U.S., seeks warmer SE Asia ties

Brian Rhoads, Reuters, Bandar Seri Begawan

China, wary about U.S. influence in Southeast Asia, will seek in Brunei this week to strengthen ties with its southern neighbors while fending off American accusations it exports weapons of mass destruction, diplomats said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan arrives in Brunei late on Monday for two days of talks with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and a security forum including 13 other partners, from the United States and the Koreas to Russia and Japan.

The highlight of China's diplomatic overtures with ASEAN nations has been plan to create the world's largest free-trade zone, uniting 1.7 billion people, and a preliminary framework could be ready late this year.

But Chinese officials say they are hoping for a stepped up security role for ASEAN, which suffers nagging concerns that religious militant groups are fostering terrorism in the region.

"We hope the Southeast Asian cooperation would move from mainly economics to be expanded to political areas, to dialog on security and detailed discussions on anti-terrorism," Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing last week.

Tang also is due to hold bilateral talks with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is expected to broach China's sales of weapons to North Korea, Iraq and Iran, states that President George W. Bush has labeled an "axis of evil".

The U.S. slapped sanctions on nine Chinese firms earlier this month for transfer of arms-related material or technology to Iran. China either denies the firms were violating any agreements or says they carried out the exports without its knowledge.

China maintains it abides by all international agreements including a pledge to Washington in November 2000 to halt transfers of missile technology to Pakistan and implement an export control system.

Tang also may raise Beijing's concerns over U.S. plans to sell submarines and other weapons to its arch-rival Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province that must eventually be returned to the mainland, by force if necessary.

Beijing has simmered uncomfortably as the Bush administration vowed more than once to "do whatever it takes" to defend the island and met with Taiwan officials in the United States, breaking with former President Bill Clinton's policy of strategic ambiguity over the island's diplomatic status.

Despite disagreements, the Tang-Powell meeting is expected to remain cordial. Analysts say China has been making an effort to keep ties on a warming track ahead of a visit to the United States by President Jiang Zemin in October.

Jiang, slated to retire as China's top Communist Party leader in a leadership reshuffle due in coming months and as president next March, is eager to be remembered as the man who consolidated Sino-U.S. relations, analysts say.

Tang will also seek stronger ties with Southeast Asia, laying the foundation for a leaders summit at the year end in Cambodia to be attended by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.

The sudden presence of U.S. troops on China's Central Asian borders -- and a six-month operation in the Philippines -- after the Sept. 11 attacks alarmed Beijing, which sees the United States as an unwanted houseguest in the region, diplomats said.

"The Chinese ultimately want to push the Americans back but at the moment they have toned down their anti-American rhetoric," said a Western diplomat in Beijing.

China has responded by stepping up its wooing of Southeast Asian nations, working to overcome suspicions dating back decades to its financing of Communist guerrilla movements in the region.

Where once Beijing was full of bluster over territorial disputes with ASEAN states, such as those over the potentially oil and gas rich Spratlys islands, it now pursues more friendly diplomatic and economic initiatives including the free trade zone.

"They want to present the smiling face of China," the diplomat said.