China to U.S.: Respect Communism
NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Sept. 23, 2005

BEIJING -- China on Thursday rejected a U.S. call to adopt democracy, telling Washington to respect its communist path and brushing off warnings of retaliation for its huge trade surplus with the United States.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters he had "taken note" of comments by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick that China's one-party system was unsustainable, but insisted the country was stable and that communism had brought substantial benefits to its 1.3 billion people.

Zoellick on Wednesday made the Bush administration's most explicit call to date for a political transition in China, where the Communist Party will mark the anniversary of its 56th year in power on Oct. 1.

"Closed politics cannot be a permanent feature of Chinese society," Zoellick told a meeting of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations in New York. "It is simply not sustainable."

China "needs a political transition to make its government responsible and accountable to its people," he added. On Thursday Qin said the United States had no right to dictate political morality to China.

"The internal affairs should be handled by the government and people of each country," he said. "We should respect another country's right to chose its own development road."

Qin insisted that China's gradual transition from a socialist economy to one based on a mixture of state-owned and private enterprises had brought great benefits to China's people.

"We have achieved sustainable and stable economic development and the people's living standards have increased day by day," he said. "Our social undertakings such as human rights and legal development have been forging ahead."

Relations between the U.S. and China have been tense lately, amid American charges that China has not provided adequate explanations for a rapid military buildup, and that its trade policies are hurting American interests. Zoellick warned about possible retaliatory U.S. action against China unless the American trade deficit with that country shrinks.

In 2004 the U.S. had a record US$162 billion (euro134 billion) trade deficit with China - the biggest imbalance ever with a single country. This year's gap is running 30 percent ahead of the 2004 pace.

"Protectionist pressures are growing," he said.

On a positive note, Zoellick praised the "constructive" role China has played in shepherding international talks on achieving nuclear disarmament in North Korea.

On Monday, the United States, North and South Korea, China, Russia and Japan reached agreement on a statement of principles that will guide the denuclearization discussions.

In his comments, Qin refused to acknowledge problems in China's ties with Washington.

"China and the U.S. are two countries with important influence in the world and now we are developing relations quite well on the whole," he said.

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