Sino-Russian Military Exercise not Targeting Third Country

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, July 12, 2002

Sino-Russian Military Exercise not Targeting Third Country

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A Sino-Russian joint military exercise scheduled for August aims to test the reliability of bilateral military communications and will not target any third country, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Thursday.

The exercise will be held according to a Sino-Russian treaty signed in July 1994 on preventing possible dangerous military actions. Such exercises on the squad scale were staged in the past.

Currently, Liu said, China and Russia are consulting on the August joint military exercise, which will be held in the same wayand on the same scale as the previous events.

Liu said the reports of some foreign media claiming China and Russia will stage a large-scale army-navy-air force joint military exercise aimed at a third country are inconsistent with the facts.

China urges US to stop arms sales to Taiwan

The Foreign Ministry spokesman reiterated China's stance on opposing the United States' arms sales to Taiwan and military cooperation between the two sides.

Liu expressed China's grave concern over a series of reports and rumors about US weapon sales to Taiwan and military cooperation.

There is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory, Liu said. The Taiwan issue is China's internal affair which other countries have no right to meddle in.

Taiwan is not a dependency of the United States, and the latter's arms sales will severely interfere in China's internal affairs,undermine the Chinese government's efforts to peacefully resolve the Taiwan problem, damage Sino-US relations and wreck peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, he said.

He said China has always opposed to US arms sales to Taiwan, and repeatedly negotiated with the US side on this issue. The US side is very clear about China's position.

China urged the United States to be aware of the seriousness ofthe problem, keep its commitments in the three Sino-US joint communiques, especially the one signed on August 17, 1982, to stopselling weapons to Taiwan, and halt military and other official contacts with Taiwan, so as to keep Sino-US relations and the mutual interests of the two countries from being harmed.

Rome Statute of International Criminal Court incomplete

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court is incomplete, which will keep courts from functioning justly and effectively and China had not joined the statute due to its deficiencies, Liu said.

Liu pointed out the statute did not strictly observe the principles of complementarity, which would possibly negatively affect government administration of criminals.

The statute did not define the rights of the United Nations Security Council on judging the act of invasion contravening the UN Charter, which meant the statute had not resolved the issue of the crime of aggression, Liu noted, saying that China was concerned about establishing a mechanism to resolve the problem.

Meanwhile, Liu said, the statute did not have an essential restriction on the power of a procurator's investigation, which would lead to the loss of a lawsuit.

Avoiding political impact on courts was also an issue to consider, Liu added.

He also expressed his hope that the International Criminal Court would win the confidence of countries which had not joined the statute, with specific work to be done in the future.

Halt to BBC broadcasts in China

Because the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) repeatedly violated an agreement it signed with China International TV Corporation (CITVC) this year, the Chinese company had halted the transmission of BBC broadcasts to China, the spokesman.

Liu said the timing of resumption of BBC broadcasts depended on measures the British media company took to resolve the problem.

China's stance on Iraq issue

China calls for full respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq, but insisted that Iraq should implement the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council in a down-to-earth manner.

China has always held that the general purpose and principles of the U.N. Charter and norms guiding the international relations should be followed while dealing with country-to-country relations,Liu said.

Moreover, the spokesman said, China is in opposition to the useof force or the threat to use force in international relations.

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