Press Conference with Secretary of State Colin Powell

Following Meetings With Chinese Officials in Beijing

Remarks to the Press

Beijing, China

July 28, 2001

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QUESTION: Robin Wright, Los Angeles Times: On human rights, did you bring up the case of Zheng Zhensheng, the former U.S.-based scholar and father of an American citizen, or any other specific cases today? And secondly, despite the resolution of the EP-3 and the three scholars with U.S. ties, do you believe that you can actually close a fundamental gap between the United States and China on issues such as Taiwan, missile defense -- especially in light of the language about China as a strategic competitor?

SECRETARY POWELL: I didn't raise specific cases, because I think it's more important not to focus all the time on individual cases. We've seen some progress -- and I might say success -- in three cases within the past few days. I was more interested in raising the whole issue of human rights and the rule of law and treating people properly. And that was done in every single meeting. And we had a candid exchange of views: that there are two different perspectives to this, two nations come at this problem from different historical perspectives and different traditions, and I made the case and the strong point that there is, nevertheless, a universality with respect to human rights that I think all nations should aspire to.

And so, I think that I laid the predicate that as individual cases come along, they should be measured against the rule of law and commonly accepted standards of jurisprudence. And I don't think that that message was missed by my interlocutors.

With respect to the EP-3, I think that is behind us. There is an outstanding accounting matter that has to be dealt with -- and will be dealt with in due course. Narrowing the gap on Taiwan and missile defense: with respect to Taiwan, we have a clear policy that has been U.S. government policy for a number of administrations, and our policy is "One China," and within that policy we also have an obligation to provide weapons to Taiwan that will be defensive in nature and conventional in nature, so that they will feel secure, and thereby in that security have the confidence to engage with the People's Republic and hopefully, with that confidence, they can restart dialogue and discussions on cross-strait issues.

On missile defense, I tried to make a comprehensive case of the President's strategy of moving forward with missile defense as part of a restructured strategic architecture: why that made sense, and why we shouldn't hang on to old concepts and old treaties if they're not relevant to the present. They listened carefully, and I'm sure we'll have many more conversations on this subject, because they have a different view of it. But that's why friends talk to each other and consult with one another.

QUESTION: I'm Jaime Flor Cruz with CNN. Many things have changed between the U.S. and China, and China and Taiwan, and you work for a new administration in Washington. Do you see a need now to negotiate a new communiqué that perhaps can redefine the relationship with China, or supercede the existing three communiqués?

SECRETARY POWELL: No, I don't see a need, and no one has suggested such a need -- either on the Chinese side or any of my colleagues in the State Department or in the new Administration. So the Taiwan Relations Act, and the three related communiqués still remain the basis of our policy.

QUESTION: New York Times: The Administration has made some progress with the Russians this week on missile defense, and a little bit of progress has been made with the Senate Democrats. Did you tell the Chinese today that the Administration's plans on missile defense would leave their limited nuclear deterrents in tact?

SECRETARY POWELL: I told them that our plans with respect to missile defense are for a limited missile defense that will be clearly -- when you see it come into being, when you see the kind of systems that our development put in place - would not threaten, not intended to threat(en), and I also don't think they would see it actually threatening the strategic deterrents of either Russia or China.

QUESTION: Good evening, Mr. Powell. I'm from China Central Television, and Mr. Bush and many U.S. Government officials said that the Sino-U.S. relationship was very important. The officials of other Asian countries also agree that the stability of this relationship will contribute to the peace and stability of the Asia-Pacific region, and even of the world. So could I know what specific steps does the US Government plan to take to improve the Sino-U.S. relationship? My second question is about Taiwan. Both you and Mr. President Bush said that the United States pursues one-China policy, and it is well known that the United States has already made concrete promises in the three Sino-U.S. joint communiqués. However, actually, I know the United States has never given up selling weapons to Taiwan. This obviously violated the spirit of the Three Communiqués. So would you please tell us what on earth is the U.S. policy on Taiwan? That's all. Thank you.

SECRETARY POWELL: That's all? I think I've described what our policy is. Our policy is "one China." And within the context of that policy, for many, many years, since its very beginning, we have examined arms sales to Taiwan. We've examined those arms sales in terms of their defensive needs, but we also examine what they say they need to make sure that it does not upset the balance in the region, and that it is always of a conventional nature, and it is always of a defensive nature. I don't believe that in any way arms sales policy has destabilized the region and certainly is not inconsistent with our one-China policy and the three communiqués.

With respect to stability in the relationship between China and the United States, we are doing many things. My presence here today is an example of trying to let the world see that we are not enemies, and we are not looking for an enemy. We are looking for ways to cooperate. We are looking for ways to move forward in a positive manner. President Bush's visit this fall, both in Shanghai for the APEC meetings and in Beijing, also illustrate that we're reaching out and building on the areas of common interest, and where we have disagreements, not shrinking from those disagreements, not saying they don't exist, but facing them and talking about them and trying to solve them. And just because we have a disagreement in one area doesn't mean we have to ignore all the other positive areas in which we can move forward.

So we want to approach China with a broad agenda, from trade through human rights through proliferation through arms sales through missile defense through relations with other countries in the region, reminding them that America is an Asian-Pacific nation as well, not only by our presence in the Pacific, but by the large Asian population that lives in the United States. We want to talk about the rule of law. We want to talk about how the rule of law is important to economic development. So we have so many things that are in common, and we have areas of disagreement. Let's talk about all of them for the purpose of keeping a positive relationship moving forward. The region and the world and both nations need the United States and China to cooperate and move forward.

QUESTION: Terry Schultz, Fox News: Mr. Secretary, this morning you had an interesting little exchange with the Foreign Minister, when he said you didn't really need to discuss the things you'd gone over in Hanoi, and you said, "Oh, I think we'll continue on." How resistant was he to going back over some of the things in Hanoi? For example, did it seem that because they released these two detainees he wanted to push human rights discussion further down the agenda? And, could you tell us a little more about the resumption of dialogue? Did you get any answers to some of the questions you were asking, or were they pushed forward now that you've set up talks for further in the future?

SECRETARY POWELL: He did say that at the outset of the meeting while you were there, but as soon as you all left, we went back to the agenda. And he had several agenda items he wanted to talk about, and he identified my agenda items for me. And he said, "I'm sure you'll want to talk about proliferation and human rights." And I did. So we went back over in considerable detail the proliferation issue, and my answer to George reflected that earlier. We also talked in considerable detail about human rights. The dialogue will begin with immediate conversations between Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner, who has responsibility for this area (and) who is traveling with me and participated in all the meetings today. My Assistant Secretary for Democracy and Human Rights was here, and he is part of this, and I introduced him to the leader in every single meeting. And he will begin discussions right away leading up to more formal discussions later in the year. And no holds barred in these discussions. We plan to talk about all of the human rights issues that are of concern to us, and we expect them to do the same. I'm sure they will see things in American society that they think bear discussion, and let's have that kind of discussion back and forth in the spirit of candor and mutual respect.

QUESTION: As we know, after the collision of the U.S. spy plane and Chinese jet fighter, the Sino-American military relationship has been broken off. How do you think there is a possibility to resume these kinds of exchanges?

SECRETARY POWELL: The MMCA? Oh, military exchanges in general.

QUESTION: Yeah, yeah.

SECRETARY POWELL: Secretary Rumsfeld has got that under review now, and he is examining all of the various ideas and requests with respect to military exchanges, and I think you will see a resumption of them. I can't specifically tell you which ones and at what time frame, because that is the responsibility of Secretary Rumsfeld. For example, I know that we've got some ship visits in Hong Kong right now, if I'm not mistaken. So things will pick up again, and I think we've got the EP-3 incident pretty much behind us. I'm not saying that the exchanges will be exactly as they were in the past, because it is a new administration, and Secretary Rumsfeld will have to take a hard look at all of them to see that both sides are mutually benefiting from such exchanges.

QUESTION: Would you just clarify on a couple of the issues you've touched on already? On missile defense, any thought or discussion about actually negotiating with China on missile levels or on missile defense systems or anything? Similar to what you do in Russia? And also wondering whether you had touched on the issue of the build-up in Chinese missiles in the Fujian coast, and whether or not something might be worked out with that?

SECRETARY POWELL: No, we didn't talk about formal discussions with respect to either offensive systems or defensive systems. We don't have any bilateral treaties with the Chinese as we do with the Russians, so there wasn't a need to move in that direction, nor did they suggest it. With respect to the build-up of missiles: yes, that was touched on. It was touched on in the context of -- as we look at what Taiwan's defensive needs are. To some extent that is a reflection of what is facing Taiwan -- to the extent that build-ups take place. That starts to shift the balance and requires us to take a hard look when examining arms sales. So yes, it did come up in that context.

QUESTION: Any response?

SECRETARY POWELL: The response was that there was not such a missile build-up.

Thank you very much.