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SYDNEY: US Vice-President Dick
Cheney warned China that its swift military build-up worried the
world and said Washington was not blindly trusting North Korea to
implement a landmark nuclear deal.
On the first
full day of an official visit, Cheney also used a speech to a group
of prominent US and Australian citizens to assail unnamed critics
who he said want the allies to “turn our backs” on places like
Afghanistan or Iraq.
In some of his
most extensive remarks on the North Korean pact, Cheney praised
Beijing’s help but said China’s swift military build-up and
recent antisatellite test clashed with its stated goal of being a
peaceful power.
“The Chinese
understand that a nuclear North Korea would be a threat to their own
security,” he told the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue,
but “other actions by the Chinese government send a different
message.”
“Last
month’s antisatellite test, and China’s continued fast-paced
military build-up are less constructive, and are not consistent with
China’s stated goal of a ‘peaceful rise,’” Cheney said.
China shot
down one of its own orbiting weather satellites in space with a
ballistic missile, provoking an international outcry amid fears over
satellite security.
As for the
nuclear deal itself, which binds North Korea to shut key facilities
in exchange for energy aid, Cheney sought to allay concerns in
Asia—especially in Japan—that the United States was going soft
on Pyongyang.
“We go into
this deal with our eyes open. In light of North Korea’s missile
tests last July, its nuclear test in October and its record of
proliferation and human-rights abuses, the regime in Pyongyang has
much to prove,” he said.
“Yet this
agreement represents the first hopeful step toward a better future
for the North Korean people,” said Cheney, who was here after a
visit to Tokyo aimed at soothing worries about the agreement.
In Washington,
US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill—the chief US
negotiator with North Korea—defended the deal and unreservedly
praised China’s help.
Cheney also
made a full-throated defense of the war in Iraq and the new US plan
to pacify Baghdad, which has drawn opposition in the United States
even as key ally Britain announced a troop draw-down.
With Democrats
in Washington and a majority of the US public pushing for a US
withdrawal, Cheney warned that hastily quitting Iraq would unleash
terrorists and sectarian violence on the Middle East and the world.
“The notion
that free countries can turn our backs on what happens in places
like Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other possible safe haven for
terrorists is an option we simply cannot indulge,” Cheney said.
Washington and
its allies are waging a battle for the survival of their
civilization, he said.
“We’ve
never had a fight like this and it’s not a fight we can win using
the strategies from other wars,” he said.
“The only
option for our security and survival is to go on the offensive, face
the threat directly, patiently and systematically until the enemy is
destroyed.”
He spoke hours
before meeting with Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s chief
political rival, Australian opposition leader Kevin Rudd, who has
vowed to pull Australian troops from Iraq if elected later this
year.
Cheney praised
Howard, with whom he was to hold talks on Saturday, as an “old
friend” and staunch US ally who shared Washington’s values and
played a key role in regional peace and prosperity.
He also held
out a hand to China, asking Beijing to “join us in our efforts to
prevent the deployment and proliferation of deadly technologies,
whether in Asia or in the Middle East”—an apparent reference to
Iran’s nuclear program.
“For our
part, the United States and Australia have the same hopes for the
future of China—that its people will enjoy greater freedom and
prosperity: That its government will be a force for stability and
peace in this region.”
Cheney was on
the second leg of a tour to Japan and Australia aimed shoring up
flagging support for the war in Iraq.
 --AFP
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