China is ready to host U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who
will be making her first trip to Beijing in her new position.
Secretary Clinton arrives in the Chinese capital, Friday.
Mrs. Clinton chose to highlight climate change, among other issues,
on her trip to Asia this week. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
Jiang Yu said Thursday that China attaches great importance to the
issue and hopes to strengthen Sino-American cooperation in addressing
climate change.
Jiang says, despite the financial crisis, China
already developed a national program against climate change and will
continue to make unremitting efforts in this area.
She also says
China looks forward to progress at global climate treaty talks,
scheduled for the end of the year in Copenhagen. China has passed the
United States to become the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases.
Although
climate change is a likely topic of discussion for Clinton's Beijing
visit, many China analysts say her trip will be judged more on tone
than actual content. Chinese officials are hoping relations will
continue in the non-confrontational spirit of the George W. Bush
administration.
Clinton, herself, has advocated a "positive
and cooperative" relationship with Beijing. In a speech at the Asia
Society in New York, last weekend, she said Washington has a very broad
agenda when it comes to China.
One topic likely to be addressed
during her visit is Taiwan. China views cross-straits relations as one
of the most important aspects of U.S.-China ties. Spokeswoman Jiang
says Beijing hopes the United States will stay committed to the One
China principle.
The undecided fate of 17 Uighur detainees, who
were cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay, may also be raised in
Secretary Clinton's talks with her Chinese counterparts. Although
Beijing wants the men to be returned for trial, the United States has
not agreed to send them to China, fearing they may be persecuted.
Spokeswoman
Jiang says China wants the men to be prosecuted in China, because they
are members of the East Turkestan terrorist organization, which is on a
sanction list of the U.N. Security Council.
Jiang says China is against any country accepting the Chinese Muslim detainees.
Some
of the 17 Uighur detainees were cleared for release as early as 2003,
but have continued to be held because no other country agreed to take
them. Wednesday, a U.S. appeals court in Washington overturned a
ruling that would have released the men into the United States.
In 2006, Albania accepted five other Uighur men who were released from Guantanamo Bay.
