Bush To Visit China

On his debut swing through Asia later this year, which includes stops in Japan, South Korea and Shanghai for a summit of Asian-Pacific nations, President Bush will meet Chinese leaders in Beijing, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller.

But the White House wouldn't go as far as describing the president's trip to Beijing a formal state visit.

The announcement follows a public invitation by Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, who surprised the White House on Thursday by announcing in Beijing that Mr. Bush will make his first state visit to China in October when he attends the economic forum.

"The president is very pleased to have received the invitation to visit China," spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "And we are considering how we can respond at this time."

The Bush administration has upset Beijing by saying it would sponsor a U.N. resolution faulting China's human rights record and that it would push ahead with a controversial plan for a national missile shield, strongly opposed by China.

Beijing is also worried that Washington will agree next month to sell large numbers of advanced weapons to rival Taiwan.

Zhu said that while China sometimes received a "complicated" message from the new administration in Washington, this mainly underscored the "need to have effective communication."

"It will take some time for the two sides to get to know each other," he told a news conference at the end of the annual two-week session of the National People's Congress, China's parliament.

He said Vice Premier Qian Qichen would visit Washington March 22 for the first high-level contact, but that channels between the Chinese and American leadership were already "open and unimpeded and they have kept closely in touch."

Zhu noted that the Bush administration had dismissed talk by its predecessor of a strategic partnership as a "misnomer which does not reflect the true picture" of rivalry.

"But partnership and competition are not always at odds with each other," he said. "Countries compete and cooperate at the same time."

Zhu expressed satisfaction at the U.S. reiteration of its long-standing commitment to the "one China" principle, by which Washington has formal ties only with Beijing and conducts relations with Taiwan informally.

He restated China's demand that Taipei accept the principle as a basis for talks between Beijing and the self-governing island it claims as a wayward province.

Zhu said China was restructuring its system of Communist Party rule, but poured cold water on speculation about reforms to democratize its political system.

"We will never copy the Western model when carrying out political restructuring," he said. "We will not copy the experience of letting two parties take shifts in running the affairs of the state or introduce a bicameral legislature."

In Washington, Fleischer also said Mr. Bush welcomed cmments on Wednesday from China's top arms control diplomat, who said Beijing was willing to discuss the National Missile Defense proposal it stridently opposes.

Sha Zukang, director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Department of Arms Control, also indicated for the first time that Beijing drew a distinction between NMD and a more local Theater Missile Defense.

"It's another sign that, around the world, people are taking President Bush seriously," Fleischer said, "and understand that the United States under President Bush will move forward with the development and deployment of a national missile defense."

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