China warns U.S. officials not to meet Dalai Lama

China's Foreign Ministry warned U.S. officials on Thursday not to meet with visiting exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, saying it hoped Washington "appropriately dealt" with Tibet-related issues.


China reviles the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama, saying he supports the use of violence to establish an independent Tibet. He strongly denies either accusation, insisting he seeks only true autonomy for the remote region.

The Dalai Lama is currently visiting the United States and is due to give a public talk in Washington Saturday.

The U.S. State Department said he met on Wednesday with Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero, but that it remained to be decided whether he would have any meetings at higher levels.

On Thursday, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and other senior U.S. lawmakers also met the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing's position on the Dalai Lama's foreign visits was clear.

"We oppose the underhand visits of the Dalai Lama which he uses to engage in activities to split the motherland," Hong told a regular news briefing.

"At the same time, we also oppose any foreign government or politicians supporting or abetting in such activities by the Dalai Lama," he added.

"We hope that the United States strictly abide by its promises on the Tibet issue and ... cautiously and appropriately deal with relevant issues," Hong said.

The Dalai Lama met U.S. President Barack Obama last year, drawing strong denunciation from Beijing.

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China in no mood to listen in U.S. rights talks

China's increasingly tough line against dissent suggests it will be in no mood to bend to U.S. demands to soften its approach when the two begin talks on human rights on Wednesday.

Analysts said the gulf between the two sides looks especially deep ahead of this year's annual U.S.-China human rights dialogue, with Beijing nervous of social unrest and Washington sounding more vocal in its criticism.

"This is the first time that the human rights dialogue will be held in an environment this bad," said Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based advocacy group.

Washington came out jabbing before the two-day talks began, saying it would use them to press Beijing over a "recent negative trend of forced disappearances, extralegal detention, and arrests and convictions" of dissidents and rights advocates.


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China, U.S. eager to put a happy face on relations

Reporting from Beijing —

The rhetoric in advance of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington that begins Tuesday sounds like an endless loop of the Communist Party's favorite buzzwords: Stability. Harmony. Cooperation.

It speaks to the image that Beijing wants to project to Americans — that of a benign giant whose rise will only benefit its neighbors and trading partners. But it's also a matter of self-interest. Selling that image abroad is key to ensuring that China can keep its economy booming at a time when its growth is alarming large parts of the world.

The White House is answering smiles with smiles: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke all made major speeches last week on the importance of U.S.-Chinese cooperation while Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was doing much the same in Beijing.

"You can't find another instance where you have all these different Cabinet-level officials giving speeches before a leader arrives in country," said Kenneth Lieberthal of the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

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China Stealth Jet 'Leak' Viewed as Intentional

BEIJING—Fresh video and still images of China's supposed stealth fighter prototype have emerged online, fueling speculation among military officials and experts about why the secretive military would suddenly allow the curtain to be lifted on such a sensitive project.

Despite China's tight Internet controls, Chinese bloggers have posted dozens of images of the J-20 online in the week leading up to a long-delayed visit by Robert Gates, the U.S. defense secretary, who arrives in Beijing Sunday on a mission to repair military ties.

Several Chinese bloggers have also posted what appear to be firsthand accounts of the J-20 conducting high-speed taxi tests—one of the last stages before a test flight—at the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute in western China.

The Chinese government and military have maintained silence on the apparent tests, which suggest that China is making faster-than-expected progress in developing a potential rival to the U.S. F-22—the world's only fully operational stealth fighter.

Yet Chinese bloggers described in detail Friday how Chinese officials had arrived at the airfield in motorcades and private jets to inspect the J-20 and pose for photographs wearing the pilot's helmet and sitting in the cockpit.

Many of the bloggers, some of whom appeared to be at the scene, said they had expected the aircraft to make its first test flight Friday, and were disappointed when the visiting officials dispersed without the J-20 taking off.



China's state media, meanwhile, sent mixed signals by quoting foreign media reports on the aircraft, and reactions to those reports from Chinese defense analysts, without actually confirming or denying that the tests were taking place.


Some experts suggest that this is China's way of responding to U.S. demands for greater transparency about its military build-up—one of the key issues overshadowing Mr. Gates's trip and a state visit to the U.S. by Chinese President Hu Jintao later in January.

Others suggest the images' publication is designed to send a message that China is emerging as a global military power even faster than most U.S. officials and experts have predicted—including Mr. Gates himself, who downplayed China's stealth fighter prospects in 2009.

Another theory is that the images were directed more at a Chinese audience in response to a recent agreement between Russia and India—China's two biggest neighbors and former military adversaries—to jointly develop a stealth fighter.



Most experts agree, however, that it is no accident that the pictures were published just before Mr. Gates arrives in China to meet his counterpart for the first time since military ties were suspended in January last year over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

Chinese authorities routinely delete politically sensitive material from the Internet, and often detain those who post it, but appear to have allowed most of the discussion and images of the J-20 to appear on military and aviation enthusiasts' blogs and websites.

The J-20 was until recently so secret that it did not have an official name and was known as the J-XX among Western defense and intelligence officials and experts.

"If anyone can keep a secret, it's China. This week's J-20-fest wasn't an accident," wrote Greg Waldron, deputy Asia editor of GlobalFlight.com, in his blog on the website of Flight International magazine.

"There are two possible reasons for the easy access the world is getting to the J-20. Either A) the country is trying to be more open, or B) they are trying to send a message," he said.

Gareth Jennings, aviation desk editor at Jane's Defence Weekly, said: "You definitely get the sense that it's being, not exactly stage-managed, but they're clearly not upset about the images being out there."

China does have a track record of gradually declassifying military programs by allowing occasional images to appear online, according to Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"The timing is interesting as India is an obvious peer competitor," he said. "The officially sanctioned leakings may have been intended for a domestic audience to say: 'It's not just the Indians who'll have one of these; we do too.'"

However, he said there may have been a "mischievous element" in allowing the images' release just before Mr. Gates's visit.

Mr. Gates cut funding for the F-22 in 2009, predicting that China would not have any such planes by 2020 and only a handful by 2025.

A few months later, He Weirong, the deputy head of China's air force, announced that China's first stealth fighters were about to undergo test flights and would be deployed in "eight or 10 years."

U.S. defense and intelligence officials now say they expect China to start deploying the aircraft by around 2018.

Vice Adm. David J. Dorsett, the U.S. director of naval intelligence, told reporters this week that China was advancing faster than expected in some areas, although he said he could not tell from the J-20 pictures when it would be fully tested and operational.

"They've entered operational capability quicker than we frequently project," he said, according to an account of the briefing on the U.S. Navy's website.

"We've been on the mark on an awful lot of our assessments, but there have been a handful of things we've underestimated."

He said China's military was becoming more open, but not enough to reassure the U.S. about how it plans to use its new capabilities, which include an aircraft carrier and an antiship ballistic missile, both of which are expected to be deployed in the next year or so.

"Over the years, the Chinese military doctrine was 'hide and bide': hide your resources and bide your time," he said. "They now appear to have shifted into an era where they're willing to show their resources and capabilities."

Meanwhile, military aviation experts were scrutinizing the J-20 images to see what, if anything, they could tell about the aircraft's capabilities.

They can tell little about its stealth capability, as that depends not just on its shape, but on the composite materials it is made from, the paint that covers it, and the technology that it carries on board.

However, they are hoping to be able to tell if it is using a Chinese engine, as China has been trying for years to develop its own models to replace the Russian ones that it either imports or produces under license to power almost all its jet fighters.

Some aviation experts said the images suggested that there were either two prototypes undergoing tests, each with a different kind of engine—possibly one Russian and one Chinese — or that two types of engine had been tested in the same prototype.

The J-20 is expected to be China's first "fifth-generation" fighter, meaning it will likely have radar-evading stealth capability, the ability to cruise at supersonic speeds without using fuel-hungry afterburners, and the capacity to take off and land from a short runway.

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China Newspaper Refers to New Jet

BEIJING—A Chinese newspaper published the first state media report Wednesday about pictures circulating online that appear to show a prototype of China's first stealth fighter jet making high-speed taxi tests.

The English-language report in the Global Times didn't confirm the existence of the prototype, or the authenticity of the photographs. It quoted one Chinese defense analyst playing up its significance, and another dismissing concerns over China's military buildup.

The Wall Street Journal reported in a Page One article Wednesday that the first clear pictures of what appeared to be a Chinese stealth fighter prototype had been published on unofficial defense-related web sites. Military aviation experts said the fighter—known as the J-20—appeared to be conducting high-speed taxi tests, which are usually the final stage before a test flight.

"If the development of the J-20 is true, it will be another reflection of China's fast industrial advancement, which has already been highlighted by high-speed railways and space exploration," the Global Times quoted Song Xiaojun, a Beijing-based military expert, as saying. "Besides the global military impact, the rumored J-20 also bears political significance because it represents China's growing power."

The Global Times quoted Li Daguang, a military expert at China's National Defense University, dismissing as "speculation" reports that China was developing a stealth fighter to rival the U.S. F-22—the only fully deployed stealth fighter in the world today. "The F-22 is an offensive weapon that fits Washington's global strategy. China's defense development is self-defensive in nature and does not require a fighter jet of that caliber," Mr. Li said.

Several unofficial defense-related websites published grainy mobile-phone video footage that they said showed the J-20 speeding along a runway and deploying parachutes from its rear. The video was shot through a fence at some distance, but magnified still images appeared to show the aircraft with its nosewheel clearly off the ground and its parachutes deployed.

Separately, in Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that President Barack Obama will press Chinese President Hu Jintao on Beijing's policies on currency and human rights when the two meet at the White House in two weeks. Mr. Gibbs, appearing hours after confirming he will step down next month, said the U.S. believes China must take steps to allow its currency, the yuan, to continue to appreciate. "China plays an enormously important role in our global economy, and China has to take steps to rebalance its currency," he said.

Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Jiang Yaoping said in Beijing on Wednesday that yuan appreciation won't resolve the U.S.'s trade imbalance with China, as the exchange rate has little effect on the major cause of China's trade surplus: the import of materials used in goods that are then exported.

The comment came a day after Mr. Obama joined a high-level meeting between National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in which the U.S. officials stressed the need for the two economic powers to reduce their trade imbalances.

The Jan. 19 meeting between Messrs. Hu and Obama is seen as key to maintaining the relationship between the two countries at a time of some tension over trade and human-rights issues. Mr. Gibbs said human rights, currency, and simmering tensions on the Korean peninsula are all anticipated to be on the agenda when Mr. Hu visits the White House.

China's trade surplus is a result of globalization, not global economic imbalances, Mr. Jiang said, adding that global companies in industries such as electronics that conduct processing trade in China benefit from the trade surplus. Processing trade refers to the import of duty-free materials that are strictly for re-export in finished goods.

A Ministry of Commerce official said China's 2010 trade surplus will be slightly above $190 billion. The yuan has risen 3.2% against the dollar since June 19, when China pledged to increase exchange-rate flexibility, effectively ending a two-year-long peg to the dollar.

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A Chinese Stealth Challenge?

BEIJING—The first clear pictures of what appears to be a Chinese stealth fighter prototype have been published online, highlighting China's military buildup just days before U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates heads to Beijing to try to repair defense ties.

The photographs, published on several unofficial Chinese and foreign defense-related websites, appear to show a J-20 prototype making a high-speed taxi test—usually one of the last steps before an aircraft makes its first flight—according to experts on aviation and China's military.

The exact origin of the photographs is unclear, although they appear to have been taken by Chinese enthusiasts from the grounds of or around the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute in western China, where the J-20 is in development. A few experts have suggested that the pictured aircraft is a mock-up, rather than a functioning prototype of a stealth fighter—so-called because it is designed to evade detection by radar and infrared sensors.

But many more experts say they believe the pictures and the aircraft are authentic, giving the strongest indication yet that Beijing is making faster-than-expected progress in developing a rival to the U.S. F-22—the world's only fully operational stealth fighter.

China's defense ministry and air force couldn't be reached to comment on the latest photos. Even without official confirmation, however, the photographs are likely to bolster concerns among U.S. officials and politicians about China's military modernization, which also includes the imminent deployment of its first aircraft carrier and "carrier-killer" antiship ballistic missiles.

Such weapons systems would significantly enhance China's ability to hinder U.S. intervention in a conflict over Taiwan, and challenge U.S. naval supremacy in the Asia-Pacific region.

Gen. He Weirong, deputy head of China's Air Force, announced in 2009 that China's first stealth fighters were about to undergo test flights and would be deployed in "eight or 10 years." But there was no clear physical evidence of their existence until the latest photographs emerged.

Chinese authorities who monitor Internet traffic in the country appear not to have tried to block the J-20 pictures.

"The photos I've seen look genuine," said Gareth Jennings, aviation desk editor at Jane's Defence Weekly.

"It's pretty far down the line," he said. "The fact that its nose wheel is off the ground in one picture suggest this was a high-speed taxi test—that usually means a test flight very soon afterwards. All the talk we've heard is that this could happen some time in the next few weeks."

U.S. officials played down Chinese advances on the plane, which American intelligence agencies believe will likely be operational around 2018. "We are aware that the Chinese have recently been conducting taxi tests and there are photos of it," said Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan. "We know they are working on a fifth-generation fighter but progress appears to be uneven."

Col. Lapan said it appears the Chinese are still seeking engines for a fourth-generation fighter from Russia, an indication that they are "still encountering problems" with development work toward the fifth-generation aircraft, the J-20.

But the 2018 estimate suggests U.S. officials believe China's development of the fifth-generation fighter has accelerated. In 2009, Mr. Gates predicted that China wouldn't deploy a fifth-generation fighter until 2020. U.S. officials said the latest disclosures wouldn't affect any U.S. aircraft-development programs.

China has made rapid progress in developing a capability to produce advanced weapons, also including unmanned aerial vehicles, after decades of importing and reverse engineering Russian arms. The photographs throw a fresh spotlight on the sensitive issue of China's military modernization just as Washington and Beijing try to improve relations following a series of public disputes in 2010.


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