Week of March 16, 2001

Delegate Chen Lili complained of a growing difficulty in the judicial system of ignoring human rights. Chen said the
crackdown on Falun Gong is full of “sharp contradictions.?Chen quoted Deng Xiaoping as having urged Chinese to
“seize our work with both hands.?While the economy is doing well, Chen said, politics and many other social areas
need improvement.

Meanwhile, the vice chairman of Guangdong’s People’s Congress said there should be clearer regulations for the
development of an independent judiciary. In recent years NPC delegates have given the judicial system relatively low
approval ratings. Last year Premier Zhu Rongji got a 97.1% approval rating from the NPC, while the Supreme People’s
Court got a 74.4% rating and the Procuratorate got a 71.2% rating. 

According to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report leaked to the Washington Times, Taiwan this year is asking
for four destroyers with the Aegis systems. Because those ships would not be delivered until 2009, Taiwan is also
seeking four Kidd-class destroyers, which although less powerful than the Arleigh Burke ships would be the most
powerful ships in Taiwan’s navy.

In a recent statement to the English language China Daily, Qian said that the Taiwan issue is “not only a problem left
over by China’s civil war, it is also the result of U.S. military intervention as the United States has kept selling advanced
weapons to Taiwan.?Qian left open the prospect of lenient terms for reunification. “What we adhere to is one China
that embraces the mainland and Taiwan,?he said. “We understand the aspirations of Taiwan compatriots to maintain
the status quo.?

Qian is scheduled to meet with President Bush March 22.

Under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, America must sell Taiwan arms to defend itself. In April, the Bush
administration will decided on what new arms to sell Taiwan. The Foreign Relations Committee staff report
recommends the establishment of direct contacts between the Taiwanese and U.S. militaries, including hot lines or
video conferencing with the Pentagon. It also recommends military training programs involving U.S. and Taiwanese
soldiers and joint military exercises between America and Taiwan.

Sha said a national missile shield for the U.S. would be “unilateral nuclear expansion.?But he said China wishes to
negotiate on the issue of the U.S. protecting itself from a limited missile attack.

America and Japan have agreed to research an Asian theater missile defense. China fears such a system could be used to
defend Taiwan.  But Sha said China is not against theater missile defense to defend American troops and ships in Asia.
“There is a gray area here,?Sha said. “China is not opposed to [theater missile defense] ?to protect troops and military
bases.?

China fears, however, that if America sells Taiwan Arleigh Burke-class destroyers with Aegis radar systems, the Aegis
systems could be used as part of missile defense. “Among the arms they have sold or proposed to sell to Taiwan, Aegis
is the worst,?Sha said.

Sha’s statements precede the imminent visit to America of Chinese deputy prime minister Qian Qichen, who will meet
with President Bush. According to China experts, Sha may have intended to set a groundwork for that meeting and to
build trust between China and America. Bates Gill, a Chinese military specialist at the Brookings Institution, said of
Sha’s remarks that “This statement appears to mark a shift from full-on opposition to a willingness to engage in a more
open dialogue about the U.S.-China strategic nuclear relationship.?

SUMMARY: Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji apologized March 15 for the recent school explosion in Jiangxi province that
killed at least 42 people, most of them children. “The fact is that the State Council, and myself in particular, have
unshirkable responsibility for this event,?Zhu said. He said the State Council, China’s cabinet, had not improved school
safety as President Jiang Zemin had ordered after various deadly fires and building collapses.

However, Zhu did not change the official story that the school explosion was the work of a suicide bomber. Survivors
and relatives of the dead said the blast occurred while children in the elementary school were making firecrackers, and
this story was widely circulated on the Internet. Zhu said his investigation found that children at the school in 1999
stuffed fuses into firecrackers but that that practice had ended after an explosion in an illegal Jiangxi fireworks factory
took the lives of 33 people a year ago. Zhu said the government would “continue to investigate until everything comes
to light.?