October 2, 2002	Wednesday	Rajab 24, 1423

BEIJING: As the United States and Great Britain lobby other members of the UN Security Council to support strong measures against Iraq, China has remained publicly ambiguous about its position — a stance pleasing so far for the Bush administration.

A British envoy on Monday discussed Iraq with Chinese foreign ministry officials, and the government’s noncommittal rhetoric has subtly shifted toward emphasizing the need for Saddam Hussein’s regime to cooperate with the United Nations.

“In the last few weeks there’s been a noticeable distancing in Beijing from Iraq,” a Western diplomat in Beijing said on Monday. “The Chinese have had a much more carefully modulated neutrality.”

A signed editorial in the English-language China Daily last week urged Iraq to allow weapons inspections. Although the article did not voice support for the United States or military action, it declared, “This is the last chance for Saddam Hussein to deprive the Americans of a legal case against himself.”

Speaking last week in Paris, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji warned the United States not to act militarily against Iraq without the backing of the Security Council. But Zhu implied that China could be open to the United Nations granting the authority to use force.

The subtle turning point in China’s thinking apparently was President Bush’s speech to the United Nations last month, which allayed fears that the United States had already decided to proceed unilaterally toward war.

Another key factor may have been the Bush administration’s decision in August to designate the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, an obscure group backing Muslim separatists in northwest China’s Xinjiang province, as a terrorist organization. That was followed by a successful US-backed effort to add the same group to the United Nations’ global watch list of terrorist organizations.

William Ehrman, Britain’s director general of defence and intelligence in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, met on Monday for 90 minutes with Chinese vice foreign minister Wang Guangya.

“We briefed the Chinese on our thinking about the draft Security Council resolution on Iraq and discussed it with them,” said British Embassy spokesman Alex Pinfield. “The Chinese took it away to study in greater depth and reflect on the discussions.”

Describing China’s stance, the official New China News Agency said Wang stressed “that Iraq should comprehensively and strictly implement the relevant UN resolutions.”

“The Chinese side would continue to make joint efforts with other members of the Security Council to push for a political resolution within the UN framework,” the news agency reported.

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan meanwhile conferred by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, the agency said. Tang emphasized that “the top priority” was getting weapons inspectors into Iraq “at an early date.”

Until now, officials here have emphasized the importance of state sovereignty, a sensitive point for a nation keen on keeping foreign governments at arm’s length from its own internal affairs. And, they have urged that international disputes be resolved through the United Nations, an arena where China holds significant sway.

“The UN framework is vitally important to China because it has veto power at the Security Council and, by urging the US to work within the UN framework, it can help tame the sort of American unilateralism that it and most others are uncomfortable with,” said Dali Yang, a China expert at the University of Chicago.

Yet to this point, China’s leaders have not addressed how they would use the nation’s vote on the Security Council when a resolution comes before it.

Experts say China is also remaining noncommittal as it works to extract concessions from the United States for a likely abstention. China has exercised its Security Council veto the least of any of the five permanent members — only four times in 30 years — but the veto power is effective leverage.—Dawn/The Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service (c) The Baltimore Sun.