-Caveat Lector-

China Rebuffs Clinton Envoy On Bombing

                            BEIJING, Jun 17, 1999 -- (Reuters) China
rejected on Thursday U.S. envoy Thomas Pickering's explanation of a series
of intelligence blunders that led to NATO bombing Beijing's embassy in
Belgrade.

                            "The Chinese side refuted this report and so
far the explanations by the U.S. side are not convincing," Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said in a statement.

                            She repeated a demand for punishment of those
responsible for the May 7 bombing, which killed three Chinese journalists
and sparked nationwide anti-U.S. protests, and said Beijing wanted
compensation.

                            Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan on Wednesday
rebuffed Pickering's explanation of an attack which the Chinese state
media have said repeatedly was deliberate.

                            On Thursday, the official Xinhua published an
account of the meeting. It said Pickering admitted there were three basic
errors which led to the embassy becoming a target in NATO's air war
against Yugoslavia.

                            The intended target was a Yugoslav military
procurement office, but two Yugoslav and one American map misplaced the
Chinese embassy, it quoted Pickering as saying.

                            U.S. military databases had not been updated
with the mission's location and the target review system failed to turn up
the error, he said.

                            Pickering stopped short of promising
punishment,
 Xinhua said, but did not rule it out.

                            He said the Central Intelligence Agency and
U.S. Department of Defense were still interviewing people involved and "it
will be determined whether any disciplinary action will be taken".

                            Xinhua also detailed China's rebuttal.

                            It said China believed it was "impossible" for
NATO not to know where Beijing's mission was and that the precision with
which the embassy was destroyed proved "the U.S. side had a very detailed
knowledge of the building structure".

                            China has specifically linked its willingness
to resume negotiations on its entry to the World Trade Organization to the
outcome of Pickering's mission.

                            It broke off WTO talks, and froze military
exchanges and a human rights dialogue, after the bombing.

                            Analysts were divided on whether the rebuff of
Pickering's explanation dealt a fatal blow to China's chance of entering
the WTO this year, which U.S.
                            President Bill Clinton said was his aim.

                            Failure to gain membership before a new global
round of trade talks begins in November could mean a delay to Chinese
membership of several years.

                            Pickering, in a statement before heading back
to Washington, gave no insight into his meetings, but he said: "We look
forward to further productive discussions with China in the mutual
interests of the two countries."

                            But Xinhua's story of Pickering's meetings was
broadly in line with an account offered by a State Department official
responsible for China to selected U.S. reporters.

                            "It may be in the end that we have to
essentially agree to disagree," the U.S. official was quoted as saying.
But, the United States was "hopeful that after a period of time, we will
get back more or less to normal relations with China".

                            The White House on Thursday said it hoped
Beijing would eventually understand the bombing was an accident.

                            "It's our hope that once China has had a
chance to review and absorb the information that they'll understand that
this was a tragic accident," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart, in Paris
with Clinton, said.

                            Zhang said the ball was in the U.S. court.

                            "It is up to the one who ties the knot to
untie it. Whoever started the trouble should end it," the spokeswoman
said.

                            "The Chinese government has always attached
importance to the development of Sino-U.S. ties," Zhang said. "But
principles must be topmost in developments in relations, especially on
principles of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity."

                            The embassy bombing sparked three days of
violent protests outside the U.S. and British missions in Beijing. Tens of
thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of other major cities. The
U.S. consul's residence in Chengdu was torched.

                            Diplomats had predicted Beijing would reject
any explanation of the bombing as an error, partly because public opinion
would not allow it.

                            However, one Western diplomat said China's
rebuff to Pickering did not necessarily mean that ties with the United
States would remain in the deep freeze.

                            "They don't want the relationship to fall to
bits, that's been clear from what's being said," the diplomat said.

                            Since the bombing, state media have been
demonizing the United States as an international bully.

                            But in recent days, articles have argued that
despite Washington's "hegemonism", China should pursue a policy of
cooperation because it was in Beijing's best interests. ((c) 1999 Reuters)

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