China: Clinton's Concern Over Taiwan Pressure 'Unnecessary'

China says Senator Clinton should stop worrying that Beijing might use its reserves of American currency to blackmail America in a military standoff over Taiwan. "The concern is unnecessary," a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy, Wang Bao Dong told The New York Sun yesterday.

"Trade is trade. Foreign reserve is foreign reserve, and it's not the Chinese government's policy to use trade or foreign reserve as a kind of leverage against the United States, which is a very important trading partner," he said.

At a campaign fund-raising event with Warren Buffett in San Francisco on Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton speculated publicly that Beijing might threaten to "dump dollars" in order to discourage America from coming to Taiwan's defense in a conflict with the mainland.

The senator said she was repeating a retired general's warning that it might be much more difficult for a future American president to act on behalf of Taiwan, as President Clinton did by sending aircraft carriers into the Taiwan Straits in 1996.

Mr. Wang said the Taiwan issue is important to China, but that Beijing is opposed philosophically to the use of economic sanctions. "The Taiwan question is a very important question in U.S.-China relations," the embassy spokesman said. "China expects the United States will honor its commitment to check the divisionist activities of pro-Taiwan-independence parties."