US urges China to review impact of policies.

Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times.

Sept 7, 2005 (Washington) — When Robert Zoellick, deputy secretary of state, visited Beijing last month to inaugurate what the US calls its “senior dialogue” with China, his message was clear: China needed to consider the global ramifications of its policies.

In an interview with reporters on Tuesday, Mr Zoellick said Beijing needed to become more sensitive to the way its policies particularly on energy, trade and the military were being received by other countries.

“Questions are being asked not only in the US, but in parts of Asia and Europe, about how China will use its growing power,” said Mr Zoellick. “Chinese leaders need to recognise that even though it is a developing country, its size and pace of growth make it a growing influence.”

Mr Zoellick said he stressed with the Chinese leadership the need for transparency, particularly in its military spending. In July, the Pentagon released its annual report on the Chinese military, which raised questions about China’s intentions, and drew a critical response from Beijing.

In Beijing Mr Zoellick says he stressed the need for China to answer those questions, telling officials: “You need transparency about what you are spending on the military, you need to have more openness about what your intentions are.”

US officials have criticised China for playing footsie with dictators such as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, and courting energy-rich rogue states such as Sudan.

“It is important for China to recognise that in their policies with countries like Sudan, Burma, Iran, while they may be driven by more narrow energy interests, they are being perceived in the US and elsewhere as having a larger foreign policy effect,” said Mr Zoellick.

In the wake of concerns about trade deficits and perceived manipulation of the Chinese currency, the US Congress earlier this year raised the red flag about the proposed, but later abandoned, bid by CNOOC, the Chinese oil company, to buy Unocal, the US energy group.

In spite of the fact that Venezuela is a leading supplier of oil to the US, some critics have raised concerns about Beijing cosying up to Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela.

But in emphasising that China and other countries cannot “lock up” resources in the global marketplace, Mr Zoellick said Venezuela could pose some strategic disadvantages for China.

“I don’t feel the US is threatened if China accesses Venezuelan energy because in an emergency situation if we had to interrupt the energy flow, we would rather interrupt it in the Caribbean than some place in Russia,” said Mr Zoellick.