US, China, feud over Taiwan, Tibet, port dispute

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States and China on Thursday traded rhetorical broadsides over US actions on Taiwan and Tibet, as well as Beijing barring a US warship from a family holiday get-together in Hong Kong.

Beijing insisted Washington's recent arms sales to Taiwan and support for Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama had left relations "disturbed and harmed" and linked those steps to last week's port-of-call dispute.

US officials had said Washington formally complained to China after a US aircraft carrier was denied entry for a Thanksgiving holiday stop that had drawn sailors' loved ones halfway around the world in hopes of a reunion.

But on Thursday, the United States sent a mixed message over the USS Kitty Hawk being turned away, as the White House demanded more "clarification" from Beijing and the Pentagon insisted it was "moving on" from the spat.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao denied that Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi had told US President George W. Bush that the US aircraft carrier was kept out of Hong Kong because of a "misunderstanding."

"On the issue of port visits, China acts in accordance with the principles of its sovereignty and approves specific visits on a case-by-case basis," Liu said one day after Yang visited the White House.

Liu also implicitly linked US moves on Taiwan and the Dalai Lama to the decision to block the ship -- prompting White House spokeswoman Dana Perino to declare Washington "surprised by that explanation."

"We are seeking clarification," Perino told reporters, insisting Yang had told Bush Wednesday "it was a misunderstanding, there was a miscommunication."

"Regardless, it was wrong for this ship to be turned away. It inconvenienced an awful lot of families who had plans to be there to spend Thanskgiving with sailors who are on that ship, and I'm sure that they suffered a tremendous amount of disappointment because of it," said Perino.

But asked whether Washington agreed with Beijing that relations had been damaged by US arms sales to Taiwan and a high-profile show of support for the Dalai Lama, Perino sidestepped the issue.

"We are seeking clarification," she repeated. "We have lots of coooperation with China on a variety of issues."

The Pentagon reached out even more, with spokesman Bryan Whitman saying that Washington had not yet received China's explanation for why the Kitty Hawk and two other warships had been turned away but declaring: "We are moving on."

"The foreign minister has given an explanation that it was a misunderstanding. We expressed our concern. We're going to move beyond it," Whitman told reporters.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asian affairs David Sedney complained formally to the Chinese military attachi in Washington on Wednesday about the decision denying the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and two small minesweepers to make port calls at Hong Kong.

"We expect and our hope is we will continue to have a strong military-to-military relationship with the Chinese," Whitman said.

Asked earlier about the port-of-call dispute, which has angered senior US politicians and military figures, Liu had warned that "due to the erroneous practices of the US, relations have been disturbed and harmed."

China views the Dalai Lama as a dangerous figure seeking independence for Tibet, and considers Taiwan a renegade province that must eventually be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.

On a sunnier note for Sino-US relations, US officials anounced China had agreed to a "full elimination" of a range of industrial subsidies to settle a complaint filed by Washington before the World Trade Organization (WTO).