[PEN-L:8209] China compares US to NAZI

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

China Says U.S. Wants To Become "Lord Of Earth"

                      BEIJING, Jun 22, 1999 -- (Reuters) China
                      compared the United States to Nazi
                      Germany on Tuesday and said NATO's
                      bombing of Yugoslavia reflected
                      Washington's ambition to become "Lord of
                      the Earth".

                      "If you ask which country wants to
                      become 'the Lord of the Earth' as the then
                      Nazi Germany had tried to, there is only
                      one answer," said a commentary in the
                      People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of
                      China's ruling Communist Party.

                      "It is the hegemonism-pursuing United
                      States."

                      In likening the United States to Nazi
                      Germany, the newspaper cited its massive
                      defense budget, the bombing of Yugoslavia
                      without U.N. sanction and the killing of
                      civilians during the air campaign in
                      Yugoslavia.

                      NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia "has let
                      more and more people see more clearly the
                      ferocious appearance of the U.S.
                      hegemonism and its ambition to dominate
                      the world", it said.

                      China's embassy was bombed by NATO planes during the
U.S.-led alliance's air campaign against Yugoslav forces. The United
States called the deadly bombing a mistake and apologized to China, but an
enraged Beijing has rejected this  explanation.

                      Beijing consistently opposed NATO's air campaign,
fearing it could set a precedent for "interference" in Chinese problems
such as Taiwan and Tibet. China's state-run media portrayed
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic as a hero fighting
NATO aggression.

                      The People's Daily said NATO's intervention was
aimed at expanding its influence eastward and paving the way for the
United States to "control the entire Europe".

                      China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday it was
unconvinced by reports of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, where many ethnic
Albanians are said to have been massacred at the hands of Serbs.

                      "We must conduct an earnest and serious
investigation before making any judgments," ministry spokeswoman Zhang
Qiyue told reporters in Beijing.

                      Evidence of mass killings of ethnic Albanians has
begun to surface since Yugoslav forces agreed this month to quit the
southern province. ((c) 1999 Reuters)