Agencies

Beijing, July 10:

Raises concern over China’s arms build-up.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today rejected a call for Washington to pull its forces out of Central Asia and urged Beijing to talk directly to rival Taiwan’s government. Rice was in Beijing to discuss North Korean nuclear disarmament with President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders, but said they also discussed a wide range of other issues. Rice rejected a call last week from a regional security group led by China and Russia for US troops to leave Central Asia, saying Afghanistan still needs help to fight terror groups. “It is our understanding the people of Afghanistan want and need the help of US armed forces,” she said at a news conference. The six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation called last week for US-led coalition forces to withdraw from bases in Central Asia. The group includes Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Rice said there was “still a lot of terrorist activity in Afghanistan” and US troops were training the Afghan army to counter it. Rice also appealed to Beijing to have contacts with the government of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian following visits to China by Chen’s political opponents.

“We do think cross-straits contacts are a good thing,” she said. “We would hope that that would extend to contacts with the elected government of Taiwan.” Beijing has tried to isolate Chen’s government by building ties with his political opponents. Rice appeared to be trying to discourage those tactics, though she didn’t comment on them directly. The US is concerned about China’s “significant” military build-up, but that does not mean it sees Beijing as a threat,

Rice said. “There is no doubt we have concerns about the size and pace of the Chinese military build-up and it’s not just the Pentagon. I’ve made clear to people this is a view held by the US government. This does not mean we view China as ‘a threat’.” “We just take note of the fact there is a significant military build-up going on ... that we have concerns about the military balance and of course the US continues to modernise its own forces so that we can continue to be a force for stability and peace in this region.” Rice also raised raised human rights, religious freedom and copyright piracy concerns and pressed for a more flexible currency regime for the nation.