China Drops Nuclear Reactor Sale to Iran

China’s foreign minister told Secretary of State Warren Christopher on Wednesday that his government will abandon a controversial sale of nuclear technology to Iran, giving the Clinton Administration a major victory in its campaign to block Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Despite the Chinese decision, which gave an important boost to the troubled Sino-American relationship, Christopher and China’s Qian Qichen were unable to reach agreement on conditions for a widely expected summit between President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Christopher’s meeting with Qian was part of a day devoted to Asian diplomacy. Earlier, Japan agreed to pay an extra $1 billion over the next five years to keep U.S. military forces in that country despite Japanese outrage over charges that three American servicemen raped a 12-year-old Okinawa schoolgirl.

A senior U.S. official who attended the Christopher-Qian talks said China decided to cancel the Iran reactor deal “for its own national interests, not as a favor to us.” The official declined to elaborate, but Iran may have lost interest in Chinese technology after Russia announced that it would go ahead with a long-delayed sale of nuclear equipment to Tehran.

Nevertheless, the step by Beijing clears away a major irritant from Washington’s side of the relationship. Qian also indicated that China is satisfied with the Administration’s assurances that the United States will not upgrade its informal relationship with Taiwan.

China angrily withdrew its ambassador from Washington in June, after the Administration allowed Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui to enter the United States for a reunion at Cornell University, where he was once a graduate student.

Talking to reporters before the meeting, Qian said he has been assured “that the U.S. side will handle this [Taiwan] issue with great prudence in the future.”

Christopher said the U.S.-China relationship continues on an upswing that began when he and Qian met Aug. 1 in Brunei. The senior official said both governments want to stage a Clinton-Jiang summit as soon as possible, but that both sides agreed “that before we fix a date for a summit we must be sure that the atmosphere is good and that there will be results.”

The official said Undersecretary of State Peter Tarnoff and Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing will meet in the next few days to attempt to set up a summit.

Earlier in the day, Christopher and Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono signed a new burden-sharing agreement that increases to $25 billion the Japanese share of the cost of maintaining U.S. bases during the next five years, a figure that U.S. officials said covers about 70% of the total.

The pact was signed following a meeting, also attended by Defense Secretary William J. Perry and Japanese Defense Minister Seishiro Eto, to review the U.S.-Japan military alliance. Although the four officials all insisted that the relationship is stronger than ever, the meeting was overshadowed by the Okinawa rape case.

Christopher and Perry offered elaborate public apologies during a post-meeting news conference, and Perry announced a series of measures designed to raise the sensitivity of U.S. military personnel and to tighten discipline.

Perry said the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, the main U.S. unit on Okinawa, will suspend all training and other activities for a day of intense indoctrination on the behavior expected of American service personnel in Japan. Although the day was not announced, officials said it will be soon.