BEIJING (Reuters) - A U.S. envoy said on Tuesday he would appeal to Chinese pragmatism in trying to convince the most obdurate opponent of President Bush's missile defense system that the plan is good for world peace.
But as Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly prepared for a day of talks with officials who have been vehemently critical of the missile shield vision since its inception, there were no signs that he would change any Chinese minds.
"I've come today to conduct a dialogue with Chinese officials on security and stability that reflects today's world," Kelly said before meeting Beijing officials who say the missile defense threatens world stability.
"China clearly shares with us an interest in promoting peace and stability in East Asia and the world. Curbing the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction is a key element in the maintenance of peace and security," he told reporters.
Kelly, the first senior Bush administration official to visit China, said he would present a four-part Bush strategic vision of "non-proliferation, counter proliferation, missile defense and unilateral reductions in the American strategic forces."
"These reductions will sharply lower the number of such weapons in America," he added.
NON-STARTER WITH CHINA
Senior U.S. envoys have toured the world since early May to brief allies in Europe and Asia, as well as other nuclear powers, and sell the Bush administration's strategic gameplan.
China is at the sharply negative end of a spectrum of world opinion that has ranged from understanding in Australia and India to ambivalence in Europe to opposition in Russia.
But the missile shield dispute is just one of many irritants in the U.S.-China relationship, which remains clouded by lingering suspicion over the April spy plane standoff and disputes over Bush's security policy toward Taiwan.
"The current climate of bilateral relations isn't really conducive to making early progress," said one Western diplomat.
Chinese security analyst Yan Xuetong said China's well-known opposition was a key reason why Kelly was sent to Beijing while the more senior ranking Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage went to more receptive countries like Japan and India.
China says U.S. proposals to build defenses capable of intercepting missiles fired by so-called "rogue states" such as North Korea or Iraq could trigger a new arms race and would mean undermining the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which Beijing sees as the cornerstone of the world's strategic balance.
In addition to the National Missile Defense (NMD) scheme, Bush is also considering a Theater Missile Defense (TMD) to protect allies, such as Japan, and U.S. troops in northeast Asia.
CHINA BUILD-UP IN RESPONSE?
China is strongly opposed to both systems, fearing NMD would negate the effectiveness of its small nuclear force and TMD would cover Taiwan and thwart Beijing's efforts to recover the island it claims as a renegade province.
China, whose nuclear arsenal pales next to America's in size and quality, is not likely to be mollified by U.S. arms cuts.
"China is likely to say that it's not really a unilateral disarmament if it's accompanied by a defensive system that will give the U.S. an edge," said the diplomat.
Asked how China would respond if Bush went ahead with the plan, Yan, executive director of the International Studies Institute at Tsinghua University, predicted Washington would not yield to political opposition alone.
"The only way to force the United States to give up its plan is if other countries' high-technology missile attack ability is stronger than the American defense capability," Yan said.
U.S. China watchers say Beijing, which is already modernizing and expanding its ballistic missile force, would step up the pace in response to America's deployment of a missile shield.
In addition to the spy plane dispute, China-U.S. ties are also strained by Beijing's detention of four Chinese-American academics, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and Bush's recent vow to do "whatever it took" to defend Taiwan if China were to attack.
©Reuters May 15 2001 1:02AM