- Title: CHINA: CHINA CRITICISES PENTAGON REPORT ABOUT THE EXPANSION OF CHINESE MILITARY
- Date: 1st June 2004
- Summary: (W4) BEIJING, CHINA (JUNE 1, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN LIU JIANCHAO ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE 0.05 2. WIDE OF JOURNALISTS 0.10 3. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) LIU SAYING: "The report by the Pentagon is full of the Cold War mentality, it is a clich that China is a threat and it goes to great lengths to exaggerate China's military force and China's military expenditures and it has ulterior motives. China's people love peace, we adopted a peaceful, independent foreign policy and we adopted a rational defence policy, we adhere to the path of peaceful development. It's only natural for China to safeguard national security and its totality, Taiwan is a part of China. Chinese people have adopted a policy of peaceful reunification. We stand ready to exert most sincerity and utmost efforts to seek peaceful reunification, but we will not allow Taiwan independence, we will not allow anybody anywhere to separate Taiwan from China. The separatist forces in Taiwan are the biggest threat to China's peace and stability." 1.04 4. SMV JOURNALISTS 1.10 5. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) LIU SAYING: "About the incident on June 4, 1989, of course it was political turmoil, no matter what you call it, we all believe that the Chinese government took decisive measures to stabilise the situation in the interests of the foreign policy of China and people's livelihood and it played a very good role in stabilising the situation which enabled China to develop its economy and made contributions to the peace and development of the world. I believe that more and more members of the international community have understood and supported China's views on this event." 1.41 6. WIDE OF JOURNALISTS 1.46 7. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) LIU SAYING: "I'm very sorry that you used the word asylum seekers, for those people we use the term illegal immigrants. We have received reports this afternoon that five unidentified people have broken into the Germany school in Beijing and further investigations have been launched." 2.03 8. WIDE OF PRESS CONFERENCE 2.10 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 16th June 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BEIJING, CHINA
- City:
- Country: China
- Topics:
- Reuters ID: LVA7Q5DXE4F411LDSWZLL6TOJSRM
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: China slams a Pentagon report which says Beijing
expanded its military build-up last year and says it will
not permit Taiwan independence.
China on Tuesday (June 1) criticised a U.S. report
which said Beijing had taken measures to significantly
build-up its military last year and warned that Taiwan
pro-independence supporters represented the biggest threat
to peace.
"The report by the Pentagon is full of the Cold War
mentality, it is a clich that China is a threat and it
goes to great lengths to exaggerate China's military force
and China's military expenditures and it has ulterior
motives," said foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.
"China's people love peace, we adopted a peaceful,
independent foreign policy and we adopted a rational
defence policy, we adhere to the path of peaceful
development. It's only natural for China to safeguard
national security and its totality, Taiwan is a part of
China. Chinese people have adopted a policy of peaceful
reunification. We stand ready to exert most sincerity and
utmost efforts to seek peaceful reunification, but we will
not allow Taiwan independence, we will not allow anybody
anywhere to separate Taiwan from China. The separatist
forces in Taiwan are the biggest threat to China's peace
and stability," said Liu.
The Pentagon said on Friday (May 28) China expanded its
aggressive military build-up last year with more
sophisticated missiles, satellite-disrupting lasers and
underground facilities -- all aimed at winning a possible
conflict with Taiwan.
China has accused the United States of damaging
relations across the Taiwan Strait by encouraging
independence seekers and repeated its threat to use force
to seize the island if it drags its feet on reunification.
The United States is Taiwan's biggest arms supplier.
China defended its crackdown on the Tiananmen protests
15 years ago in which, hundreds, if not thousands, were
killed.
"About the incident on June 4, 1989, of course it was
political turmoil, no matter what you call it, we all
believe that the Chinese government took decisive measures
to stabilise the situation in the interests of the foreign
policy of China and people's livelihood and it played a
very good role in stabilising the situation which enabled
China to develop its economy and made contributions to the
peace and development of the world. I believe that more and
more members of the international community have understood
and supported China's views on this event," said Liu.
China said it was investigating reports that several
North Korean refugees had taken sanctuary in a German
school in Beijing.
China insisted that the North Koreans were "illegal
immigrants", rather than asylum seekers.
"I'm very sorry that you used the word asylum seekers,
for those people we use the term illegal immigrants. We
have received reports this afternoon that five unidentified
people have broken into the Germany school in Beijing and
further investigations have been launched," said Liu.
Beijing, a close ally of Pyongyang, has an agreement
with North Korea to repatriate North Koreans. But it has
let some North Koreans reach South Korea through third countries.
Activists say up to 300,000 North Korean refugees are
hiding in northeast China after fleeing hunger and poverty
by crossing the border.
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