Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS May 21, 1997

Nando.net, Reuter Information Service, 5/20/97

SINGAPORE (May 20, 1997 06:02 a.m. EDT) - The top U.S. military commander in

the Asia-Pacific region said on Tuesday that China was not a threat to

Washington but disagreements with Beijing would not go away and must be

resolved between the two countries.

Admiral Joseph Prueher, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, told

reporters it would take 15 to 20 years for China to acquire the ability to

project military power in the region.

"I do not see China as a threat," he said. "Our strategy with China is one

of constructive engagement. It means dealing in a responsible way with

China."

Prueher said the United States was not worried by China's recent acquisition

of two destroyers from Russia or its plans to have an aircraft carrier in

the future.

He said the destroyers were "matters of interest but not of over-concern or

alarm for us."

Prueher said recent trips to China by senior U.S. officials such as

Vice-President Al Gore and a summit between Presidents Bill Clinton and

Jiang Zemin should help foster a good working environment between the two

countries.

"We are putting in place the pieces to have good dialogue with China, to

work at resolving conflicts and to work at resolving differences of opinion

that we will have," he said.

The differences include human rights, protection of intellectual property

rights, trade disputes and Taiwan.

China reacted angrily last year when two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups

were deployed in waters near Taiwan after Beijing fired missiles and

conducted war games in the area ahead of the island's presidential

elections.

China has regarded Taiwan as a renegade province since a civil war split

them in 1949. Beijing acknowledged the war games were a bid to warn Taiwan

voters not to drop a pledge to reunify with the mainland.

Prueher said the United States would maintain a force of 100,000 soldiers in

the region and that historic animosities between several countries in the

region meant it had a role to play, even if peace arrives in the Korean

peninsula.

"Our commitment to a U.S. presence and stability transcends the Korean

peninsula," he said.

He also raised the possibility that the U.S. navy might call more often at

its former base at Subic Bay in the Philippines.

"In our discussions with the Philippines and Subic Bay, some have expressed

an interest in our ships using that again on a different basis than before,"

Prueher said. "So that might be a place we would use more in the future than

we do now."

The U.S. navy was forced to abandon Subic Bay in 1992 after the Philippine

Senate rejected a new 10-year bases agreement.