US senator offers help to China

Senator Biden (l) met Shanghai Mayor Xu Kuangdi

By Duncan Hewitt in Shanghai

The most senior United States senator dealing with international relations, Joseph Biden, is in China for talks likely to include US plans for a new missile defence shield, Chinese arms sales and China's human rights record.

Senator Biden, chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, is due to meet senior government leaders at a seaside retreat on Wednesday, including President Jiang Zemin.

In Shanghai on Tuesday, he said he wanted to help China understand the US policy on the sensitive issue of Taiwan.

But he warned the Chinese Government that it must do its part to prevent President Bush's controversial missile defence system from becoming a reality.

Key moment

Senator Biden's visit to China comes at a key moment, with Chinese leaders bitterly opposed to the Bush administration's missile defence plans.

BIden says he admires Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian

They say it could be used to defend Taiwan if China ever decided to use force against the island, and as such could spark an arms race in Asia.

Senator Biden, whose Democratic party recently won control of the senate, has also warned Mr Bush that introducing such a system without addressing the concerns of China and Russia could have a destabilising effect.

In Shanghai he kept up the pressure on President Bush not to break off unilaterally the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a necessary first step for building such a system. Mr Biden said he did not believe President Bush would do this but he said if he did he was unlikely to win the support of the Senate.

However, he also put pressure on Beijing, calling on President Jiang Zemin to urge neighbouring North Korea not to develop new intercontinental missiles - Senator Biden warned that if North Korea did so, it would increase support in the Senate for a missile defence programme.

Taiwan clarification

He stressed the US did not see China as a hostile country and he said he hoped China's leaders would understand the US was only committed to selling weapons to Taiwan for defensive purposes, and did not support Taiwan independence.

He did, however, stress his admiration for Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian, who is seen by Beijing as a key supporter of independence.

Another member of his delegation, Republican Senator Fred Thompson, highlighted another strand of US political opinion, accusing China of breaking its commitments not to transfer missile technology to Pakistan.

He said the US congress had to decide whether it should continue to engage in trade with a country which he said was making the world a more dangerous place.