Don't train Taiwan military, China warns US

China today asked Washington to stop an effort by US lawmakers to establish a military training programme for rival Taiwan.

The measures approved by the US House of Representatives this week as part of a $491bn (€390bn) military budget violates US commitments to China on relations with Taiwan, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

“We firmly oppose them and have made solemn representations to the US side,” said spokesman Kong Quan, quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency. He urged the US to “clearly recognise the severe harm of these provisions” and prevent them from becoming law.

China claims that Taiwan, split from the mainland since 1949, as its territory and has threatened repeatedly to invade. Beijing opposes any foreign contact with its military.

Washington has no official relations with Taiwan but is the island’s main arms supplier and military protector.

The measure approved this week would require US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld to create education program for Taiwanese military officers.

Meanwhile, the US has turned down the latest request for a trade case to be brought against China over its currency system, marking the third time it has refused to take the dispute to the World Trade Organisation.

US Trade Representative Rob Portman rejected a petition filed in April by House and Senate members asking the administration to use a provision in US trade law, known as Section 301, that allows economic sanctions to be used against unfair trade practices.

“We do not believe that a Section 301 action is appropriate or a productive way” to achieve the goal of a flexible Chinese currency system, Portman’s spokesman Richard Mills said yesterday in a statement.

The latest petition was filed by 22 House members and 12 senators who raised the same arguments as US manufacturers: that China is unfairly manipulating its currency to gain trade advantages by retaining for the past decade a system that links the yuan to the US dollar at a fixed value of 8.28 yuan to the dollar.