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NEWS - China ``highly displeased''
- Subject: NEWS - China ``highly displeased''
- From: RangoonPost@xxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 16:11:00
Subject: NEWS - China ``highly displeased'' with U.S. defence law
In a message dated 10/11/99 5:16:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time, BURMAJAPAN
writes:
<<
China ``highly displeased'' with U.S. defence law
BEIJING, Oct 8 (Reuters) - China announced strong displeasure with the
United States for signing the fiscal year 2000 defence bill into law, saying
it contained anti-China articles, state media reported on Friday.
``Now that the United States has made the bill into law, China is highly
displeased with and is firmly opposed to this,'' Xinhua news agency quoted
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue as saying.
President Bill Clinton on Tuesday signed a $288.8 billion U.S. military
budget that increased defense spending for the first time since the Cold War
ended and gave troops their biggest pay raise in 18 years.
The Xinhua article made no reference to parts of the law that Beijing found
objectionable.
``The Chinese are demanding that the United States proceed from the overall
situation of bilateral relations and adopt effective measures to prevent the
anti-Chinese articles in the law from damaging the improvement and
development of Sino-U.S. relations,'' Zhang was quoted as saying.
It was the second time in as many days that China lashed out against the
United States.
China opened a new rift in the fragile Sino-U.S. relationship on Thursday,
reacting angrily to U.S. threats of sanctions over allegations of religious
persecution.
Ties had been on a gradual mend after hitting their lowest point in a decade
following the bombing of Beijing's embassy in Yugoslavia in May by NATO
warplanes.
``This is in essence a wanton interference in China's internal affairs under
the pretext of religious freedom,'' the foreign ministry's Zhang was quoted
as saying by Xinhua.
The U.S. State Department designated China, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar and Sudan as
countries of particular concern for violations of religious freedom,
spokesman James Rubin said on Wednesday.
The designation makes the countries liable for U.S. sanctions. The
designations were the first of their kind under the Religious Freedom Act
passed by Congress last year.
Zhang said on Thursday that ties had ``reached a crucial point.''
U.S. President Bill Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin had met last
month in New Zealand, their first face-to-face talks since the bombing.
11:55 10-08-99 >>