(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-27 07:24

Condoleezza Rice was expected to handle her fourth visit to China in her capacity as US Secretary of State, and her seventh since she first started working with the Bush administration, with ease.

But her agenda showed that she had her work cut out for her.

Given this year's presidential election in the United States, the 2008 Olympics and Taiwan leader Chen Shuibian's plan to hold a referendum on UN membership as the backdrop, Rice's one-day stay in Beijing yesterday meant a lot for bilateral relations and international affairs.

Her itinerary, dominated by intensive meetings with Chinese leaders such as President Hu Jintao and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, should bring the two countries closer on such issues as Taiwan, denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and Darfur.

Rice said the United States does not want to see a military conflict between China's mainland and Taiwan. Neither does the mainland.

With the nuclear talks at a crucial juncture, the swapping of notes on the next phase of the negotiations will bring the process forward.

Last year the six parties reached a deal under which the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed to disable its nuclear reactor and declare all nuclear programs and facilities by the end of last year to pave the way for dismantlement. In return, the US and other parties said they would provide 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil and other economic and energy assistance to the DPRK.

However, the US accused the DPRK of missing the deadline despite reported progress in the process of declaration. Still the DPRK insisted the US immediately begin the process of taking it off its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism and stop its allegedly hostile policy toward the DPRK.

The six countries involved - China, the DPRK, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russia and the US - need to discuss how to implement the principle of "action for action", and deepen trust between the DPRK and the US.

Rice's East Asia tour is part of the diplomatic effort to revive the nuclear talks as all sides involved are working for progress.

The tour, which will take her to Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo in three days, is intended to stabilize US relations with East Asian countries. To the US, these relationships are of global and strategic significance.

(China Daily 02/27/2008 page8)