The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeline Albright, found herself on the defensive in Beijing yesterday as China reaped the diplomatic benefits of last week's successful North-South summit in Korea, which it helped to promote. On a one-day visit, Ms Albright was told in no uncertain terms, to judge from Chinese officials, that the prospect of detente on the Korean peninsula meant that US plans for a National Missile Defence (NMD) and Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) in the Asia-Pacific should now be scrapped.
The US has long argued that such a system is necessary to defend itself against missile attack from a "rogue" nation such as North Korea. Beijing's opposition to the plan was "consistent and clear", China's Foreign Minister, Mr Tang Jiaxuan, told her, according to a spokesman. "China has consistently held that the US pretext for developing NMD and TMD systems does not have a leg to stand on. The developments in Korea make that even more true."
Ms Albright undoubtedly got the same message from President Jiang Zemin, the Premier, Mr Zhu Rongji, and the Vice-Premier, Mr Qian Qichen, all of whom she met separately in what Mr Zhu rather caustically referred to, when they shook hands, as her "whirlwind visit".
China is concerned that the TMD will be used to shelter Taiwan and make it more difficult to persuade, or coerce, the island to reunify with the mainland. Mr Tang urged the United States to "stop official contact and exchanges with Taiwan, halt arms sales to Taiwan and do not include Taiwan in the US TMD plan in any form".
Ms Albright is the highest-level US official to visit Beijing since the US-led NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last year. Mr Tang told her that "bilateral relations have shown a certain improvement, especially after the setback last year, and this is heartening".
The Secretary of State urged Chinese leaders to hold talks with Taiwan, especially as its newly elected President Chen Shui-bian has suggested a Korea-style summit.
"Clearly in the talks today, Taiwan is very much on their minds," she said. "What was so evident to me was that they know that this is on the front burner, that this is something that they want to deal with, that they have to deal with - and that the world is watching how they deal with this issue." Though it had come up on all four of her previous visits, "it is much more acutely central to their thinking at the moment".
She told a news conference that she had "good, substantive discussions" with officials, focusing mainly on China's accession to the World Trade Organisation.
Ms Albright travels to Seoul today for talks with President Kim Dae-jung.
Meanwhile, North Korea has reaffirmed its pledge to the US to stop flight-testing its long-range missile, paving the way for talks very soon with the US on further curbs on the missile programme, a senior US official accompanying Ms Albright said.