China presses US to rein in Taiwan's Chen

BEIJING, May 29 (Reuters) China has urged Washington to do more to constrain Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, whose moves towards independence have angered the mainland, and protested at Japan's move to allow a trip by Chen's predecessor, Lee Teng-hui.

Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan told George Schwab, president of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, a Washington-based association, that ties between their two countries were healthy.

But Tang, a former foreign minister who now helps guide his country's diplomacy, stressed China's worries about Taiwan, which receives arms and informal support from the United States.

Tang ''stressed that opposing and containing Taiwan independence and protecting the peace and stability and Taiwan Strait suit the shared strategic interests of China and the United States'', the Chinese Foreign Ministry reported on its Web site (www.fmprc.com.cn) late yesterday.

Tang urged Washington to ''support China's efforts to improve and develop cross-Strait relations, and adopt substantive and effective measures to halt Chen Shui-bian's various Taiwan independence provocations and dangerous ventures''.

Tang's call for Washington to resist Chen's policies marked another shift from Beijing's long-standing line that Taiwan is purely an internal matter.

In recent years, China has maintained that claim while also pressing the Bush administration to rein Chen in.

Beijing deeply distrusts the independence-leaning Chen, who won presidential elections for the Democratic Progressive Party in 2000 and 2004, and fears he will accelerate his agenda before his final mandate expires early next year.

China and Taiwan have been separated since 1949, when defeated Nationalist forces fled to the island. Since then, the Communist-ruled mainland has demanded that Taiwan accept reunification and has threatened force to stop the island embracing independence.

Under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, the United States would show ''grave concern'' at any military moves against Taiwan, but the act does not oblige it to intervene.

JAPAN VISIT Meanwhile, China had made a ''solemn representation'' to Japan for allowing a visit by former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui that was due to start on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said today.

''We strongly demand Japan attach importance to China's serious concern ... and not provide political stages to Taiwan independence elements or forces,'' Jiang told a regular briefing.

Lee, 84, was president from 1988 to 2000 and has been reviled by Beijing for asserting the self-ruled island's sovereignty. Japan said on Monday the visit was for tourism only and should have no impact on bilateral relations.

Jiang Yu also welcomed a move last week by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to downgrade Taiwan's membership to that of a non-sovereign region, clearing the way for China to play a full part in the agency's work.

China pressures countries with which it has diplomatic ties to refrain from official contact with Taiwan and takes pains to keep the island out of international organisations which Beijing says are open only to sovereign nations.

REUTERS NY HT1647