[PEN-L:6624] Clinton moves to defuse China-Russia Convergence

["Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Drudge Report:
In Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen told the Russian
President's special envoy for Yugoslavia Viktor Chernomyrdin that China
and Russia share identical views on many issues including Kosovo,
according to Chinese news reports. Views that were shared during a
telephone call on Monday between the Chinese and Russian presidents.

During his talks with Chernomyrdin, Qian said that Chinese President
Jiang Zemin and Russian President Boris Yeltsin consulted each other on
the Kosovo crisis on Monday during an "important telephone
conversation".

The telephone conversation between (Jiang) Zemin and Yeltsin showed
"mutual trust, mutual understanding and mutual support" by the two
countries in the Yugoslav crisis, the Chinese newswire XINHUA reported
overnight.

Chernomyrdin called the telephone conversation between Yeltsin and Jiang
"very important".

According to the reports, Yeltsin said the attack of the U.S.-led NATO
on Chinese Embassy in Belgrade is a barbaric act, and he expressed his
profound condolences to the families of Chinese journalists killed in
the attack.

According to Chernomyrdin, who arrived in China on Monday evening for
talks with the Chinese leaders on the situation around Yugoslavia, the
Embassy bombing confirmed that the policy from the positions of strength
pursued by the western countries and NATO only "complicates the
negotiating process" and has led to a "deadlock".
(End)

Within one hour of Chernomyrdin's landing in Beijing, Clinton made a
statement about the Chinese embassy bombing that included the word
"apologize", up from "regret" in a previous statement.
In the same statement, Clinton express his determineation to continue to
improve US-Chinas relations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry described Clinton's hope that the embassy
boombing would not affect relations "naive".

Italy and Germany also call for investigation of the "mistake" that led
to the embassy booming.

Henry C.K. Liu