China warned the United States and Japan against including Taiwan in their military pact Sunday, while also seeking to calm fears that the lifting of an EU arms embargo would lead to an attack against the island. Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said Beijing sought better ties with both Washington and Tokyo - China's two largest trading partners - but he warned increasing US-Japan military co-operation should be strictly bilateral and not encompass Beijing's arch-rival Taiwan.
"Any part of putting Taiwan directly or indirectly into the scope of Japan-US security co-operation constitutes an encroachment on China's sovereignty and interference in China's internal affairs," Li said. "The Chinese government and people are firmly against such activities."
During a wide-ranging press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress, Li characterised the military alliance between Japan and the United States as a "bilateral arrangement" that came about during the Cold War.
Any expansion of such a relationship, Li warned, could cause problems in the region.
"If it goes beyond the bilateral scope, definitely it would arouse uneasiness on the part of Asian countries and bring about complicated factors to the regional security situation," Li said.
Beijing has been increasingly wary of Washington and Tokyo's close strategic partnership, seeing it as a potential obstacle to its firm goal of eventually reunifying with the island of Taiwan, by force if necessary.
In a joint statement last month, Washington and Tokyo said easing tensions in the Taiwan Strait was part of their "common strategic objectives" and urged China, which has 600 missiles amassed opposite the island, "to improve transparency of its military affairs."
This angered Beijing, which slammed the allies' move as "inappropriate."
While asserting that the Taiwan issue was the "most sensitive" and core obstacle facing Sino-US ties, Li nonetheless sought to dispel fears China was planning to attack the island.
"We have always stood for the peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue," Li said.
He reiterated China's call for the lifting the EU's 15-year weapons embargo, saying it amounted to "political discrimination".
"Actually China is committed to peaceful development. We do not have the need to buy a lot of advanced weapons from the European Union," Li said.
"China is a developing country, we do not have the money to buy a lot of weapons from your country that are very expensive and useless to us."
Opponents have voiced concerns that an end to the embargo - imposed after China's crushing of pro-democracy protests in 1989 - could result in Beijing arming itself with advanced weapons to retake Taiwan.
The bloc is poised to lift the embargo as early as June.
On other territorial issues, Li insisted that the disputed Diaoyu or Senkaku islands belong to China.
"China has indisputable, historical and legal sovereignty over the Diaoyu Island and the adjacent islands," Li said.
"No glib words or tricky action can change this fact nor can it be changed by any unilateral action by any foreign country," he said, apparently referring to Japan's recent decision to protect structures on the islands built by Japanese nationalists.
On the North Korean nuclear stand-off, Li Sunday said the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions were the only realistic way to resolve the "complex" issue and urged all parties to consider Pyongyang's concerns.
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