U.S. Envoy Fails to Sell China on Missile Defense Plan

A U.S. envoy explained the Bush administration’s missile defense proposal to Chinese officials Tuesday, but failed to convince one of the system’s strongest critics that the plan would enhance global security.

James A. Kelly, assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, spoke with vice foreign ministers Wang Yi and Li Zhaoxing, as well as China’s top arms control official, Sha Zukang.

The official New China News Agency called the talks “frank” and said the two sides expressed willingness to keep negotiating.

However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said China’s opposition to the system “is consistent and will not change.”

“We hope the U.S. side will act cautiously and not go ahead with this sort of plan. This is the primary aim of the Chinese side’s efforts,” Sun said at a news briefing.

Kelly is the highest-ranking Bush administration official to visit China, and the talks come at a tense time in U.S.-Chinese relations. The New China News Agency said Kelly reassured Chinese officials that Washington would stick to its “one China” policy, which holds that Taiwan is part of China.

Kelly also has visited U.S. allies Japan, South Korea and Australia to drum up support for the missile defense plan. Other U.S. officials met last week with allies in Europe and Russian officials.

Rejecting Washington’s assurances that the missile shield would be targeted only at “rogue” nations, Beijing sees it as a tool to strengthen U.S. global dominance and thwart China’s emergence as a major power in Asia.

Beijing is also worried that the U.S. would build a smaller, separate system to cover Japan, from which China fears resurgent militarism, and Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949 after a civil war. Lacking the ability to invade Taiwan, China relies primarily on missiles to deter the island from declaring independence.

On Monday in Singapore, Kelly said the system would not be as extensive as China feared.

But Sun, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, reiterated Beijing’s position that the missile shield would “destroy the global strategic balance and upset international stability.”

“China will not just wait idly and see its national interests being undermined,” he said. He did not say what countermeasures China might take.

Experts say a U.S. missile defense system would force China to expand and modernize its arsenal. China is already modernizing its nuclear forces, but its leaders fear that an all-out arms race would retard the country’s economic development.

Chinese leaders worry that without a viable, if nominal, nuclear deterrent, their country could be vulnerable to a first strike or the threat of nuclear blackmail. China has about 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are considered to be decades out of date.