The U.S.
has no intention of withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan
and won't heed a call for Americans to leave the central Asian state, U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
``There is one country that has asked the U.S.
to stay in Afghanistan
and it is Afghanistan,''
Rice told reporters after meeting Chinese leaders today in Beijing.
``Afghanistan
is a sovereign state and has a freely elected government.''
China,
Russia and other
members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional anti-terror
grouping, had asked the U.S.
to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan
in a statement on July 6.
``I might add that America
liberated Afghanistan
from the Taliban, which was undemocratic, and that there still are multiple
terrorist attacks in Afghanistan
every day,'' Rice said. ``Troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization also
are there. So it is not just U.S.
troops that are there. It is a multinational presence in Afghanistan.''
Rice, who is on her second visit to China
since becoming secretary of state, met today with senior Chinese officials
including President Hu Jintao
and Premier Wen Jiabao.
Afghanistan
was one of the areas of disagreement in the talks, which focused primarily on
the July 25 resumption of the six-nation talks on North
Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
include Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan
and Tajikistan.
Taiwan
Disagreement
The U.S.
relationship with Taiwan
also was discussed.
``We have discussed Taiwan
and we have restated the American position,'' Rice said. ``We will abide by the
`one-China' policy. But we do still have obligations under the Taiwan Relations
Act, that the status quo across the Taiwan Strait must
be maintained. We do not support Taiwan
independence but we also believe the military balance must be maintained across
the Strait.''
China
and Taiwan have
been ruled by rival governments since a 1949 civil war. China
considers the island a renegade province that must be reunited by force if
necessary.
``It is good that China
has reached out to Taiwan's
opposition leaders,'' she said. ``But we encourage China
to also reach out to Taiwan's
elected government.''
Other Disagreements
China's
rising military spending was also discussed. ``There is no doubt we have
concerns about the size and pace of China's
military build up,'' Rice said.
Rice also brought up the issue of Tibet
and the Dalai Lama, Tibet's
leader in exile. ``We asked China
to reach out to the Dalai Lama, a man who to Tibet
is a man of considerable authority and is no threat to China.''
China
considers the Dalai Lama a ``separatist'' and his Tibetan government in exile
in India a
separatist group.
Rice said she also brought up the issue of intellectual
property rights in talks with Premier Wen.
``The Chinese economy is big and getting bigger,'' she said.
``The rules-based economy in the World Trade Organization that China
has entered requires that China
play by certain rules. A growing Chinese economy is a good thing, but it must
do so within the framework of respecting rules, such as the protection of
intellectual property.''
Rice said she ``recused'' herself
from discussions about Cnooc Ltd.'s
$18.5 billion bid for U.S.-based oil company Unocal Corp. She sits on the board
of Chevron Corp., which is also bidding for El Segundo, California-based
Unocal.
Rice, who is on a six-day, four-nation tour of Asia, leaves
for Thailand today and will travel to South Korea and Japan before returning to
the U.S. later this week.
July 10, 2005
Source: Bloomberg
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