Communists Gather In China
As members of China's communist party gathered for their annual conference, the strained relationship between the mainland and the island nation Taiwan was the thorn in the party's side, CBS News Correspondent Barry Petersen reports.
The annual session of the National People's Congress, which started Sunday, runs for eight days. Although the Congress has limited legal authority, powerful provincial and military leaders are among the nearly 3,000 delegates.
The official agenda for the meeting is fairly bland, which is why attention might turn to Taiwan. According to one Congress participant who spoke to CBS News, "Reunification of the Motherland is a sacred mission."
The congress comes at a crucial time in China-Taiwan relations.
China considers Taiwan a breakaway, renegade province. Last summer Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui enraged the Chinese when he said that the China and Taiwan should deal state to state, as if Taiwan were an equal country.
Tempers flared again when China, in a government white paper released late last month, said that Taiwan must start negotiating reunification soon, or China could use force to bring Taiwan to the bargaining table.
The tough words seemed timed to influence Taiwan's presidential elections.
The Chinese statement fed existing anti-China sentiment in Congress.
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There's now increased pressure in Congress to sell Taiwan more sophisticated American weapons, a move both the Chinese and the Clinton administration oppose.
There's also growing opposition to granting China permanent trading partner status, as well as its bid for membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Analysts say Congress may be miscalculating -- Taiwan may be more important to China than trade. Said Yan Xuetong, the director of China's foremost government-funded think tank, "They will immediately tell you that I prefer the reunification, forget the WTO."
Former U.S. ambassador to China James Sasser believes China's leaders may be under internal pressure from their own generals not to look weak.
| America's Taiwan Policy The United States acknowledges the Chinese position that "there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China." However, the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) of 1979 compels the U.S. "to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means...of grave concern to the United States." According to the law, the U.S. role is to, "provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character...and to maintain the capacity of the United States" to resist any attmpt to take Taiwan back by force. |
"The military is much more bellicose and much more hard line on the question of Taiwan than the civilian leadership," said Sasser.
Asked what will happen if Taiwan declares independence, Yan told CBS News, "I think that means a declaration of war."
Beijing is awash in security for the 10-day legislative session, which opens Sunday.
The government reportedly plans to execute an official found guilty of bribery as part of a fight against widespread corruption that is undermining popular support for the Communists.
Hu Changqing, a former deputy director of the State Council's Religious Affairs Commission and then a deputy governor of Jiangxi province, was sentenced last month to death for taking bribes worth $658,000.
The Congress will also pass a budget. Cabinet officials have said the government will push for a third year of deficit spending to keep the economy growing at a 7-percent clip.
Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily reported that Premier Zhu Rongji will tell delegates Sunday the deficit will rise 10 percent to $24 billion.