Beijing's caveat

By Amit Baruah

MR. JIANG ZEMIN told Mr. Tony Blair earlier this week that military action against terrorism should be taken with ``irrefutable evidence'' and aim at clear targets to avoid hurting innocent people.

The Chinese President, who also spoke to the French President, Mr. Jacques Chirac, and the Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, was clear about Beijing's position on military retaliation to the September 11 attacks.

Mr. Jiang told Mr. Putin that it was necessary to take note of the direct results of the attacks as well as its ``deep impact'' on the regional situation as well as the long-term interests of world peace and development. According to him, China was ready to strengthen anti-terrorism cooperation with the international community. China, he added, held that the role of the U.N. Security Council should be fully exerted and the five permanent members should increase consultations.

Separately, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said: ``The United States has asked China to provide assistance in the fight against terrorism... China, by the same token, has reasons to ask the United States to give its support and understanding in the fight against terrorism and separatists. We should not have double standards.''

While this position ``links'' the issue of terrorism to the Chinese understanding of its domestic problems in Xinjiang, Tibet and Taiwan, the spokesman stated that the fight against terrorism was a ``different'' issue. ``We are not making any bargains here,'' he said.

Western media reports from Beijing have been highly critical of China's position - saying that it wanted to extract a price for supporting the broad coalition against terrorism that the U.S. is trying to put together.

Whatever be the correctness of such views, the fact remains that China is promoting its own national interest. If it can get the U.S. to back down on certain issues and raise the stakes for its support, then why not?

There is little doubt that Beijing remains concerned about a unilateralist U.S. Its stand favouring a broad role for the U.N., specific targets and avoiding injury to innocent people, is likely to win the Chinese Government support from many quarters. It will also strengthen the credibility of any anti-terrorist coalition the U.S. can put together.

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