Week of November 17, 2000

• INTERNATIONAL:  U.S. and China Have Sideline Meetings During APEC Summit
• DOMESTIC:  China Wraps Up Census Count
• INTERNATIONAL:  China and India Attempt to Resolve Border Dispute

During their talks, Albright reaffirmed the U.S. one China policy that recognizes Beijing over Taipei.  Minister Tang was also informed that the next president would continue to pursue the one China policy, due to the importance of their relationship.

Presidents Clinton and Jiang also met on the sidelines during the APEC forum.  The resumption of human rights discussions was brought up, along with topics of Taiwan, Tibet and religious freedoms.

Tensions have eased some since the bombing of China’s embassy last year, and both sides agreed that Sino-U.S. relations are improving.
 
 

The deputy director of the national census office, Liu Changsong, said he believed census-takers in some area had not carried out the census properly.

For example, place like Hunan and Shaanxi there had been undercounting, due to the large number of migrant workers who have left the relatively poor provinces for higher paying work in bigger cities.

Reports also came in that some officials never left their office to conduct the census, and instead reused figures based on previous estimates.  Other grassroots officials, who enforce the one-child policy, feared reprisals from higher ups if they reported accurate data that revealed some families had more than the permitted number of children.

Five million census-takers and one million administers were used during the 15 days of census taking.  The result will be available next year February.
 

During the eight round of Expert Group (EG) talks, both sides exchanged maps on the less disputed middle sector on the India-China border, which China estimates to involve some 20,000 square kilometers.

Both sides agreed earlier this year to accelerate the talks on the clarification of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to more than just one meeting a year in order to speed up delineating the borders.  Border resolutions are an important first step for improving held back bilateral relations.

According to India, China has been illegally occupying of 43,180 square kilometers of Jammu and Kashmir.  While China argues that India has occupied around 90,000 sq. kilometers of Chinese territory.