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China, US Sign Deal on New Embassy Compounds
The United States and China added a flourish to a dramatically improved relationship on Wednesday by announcing they had set aside land for new embassies in Washington and Beijing.
The move followed years of talks punctuated by the bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade by US jets on a NATO mission, the opening of Chinese markets to the United States and US approval of normal trade relations with China.
"The agreement represents an important step in expanding US-China relations," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a news briefing.
He was speaking after US Ambassador Joseph Prueher and assistant foreign minister Zhou Tianshun signed a memorandum of understanding on the land at a ceremony in Beijing.
It foresaw the United States getting a 40,000-square-meter site in Beijing for a new embassy and a 30,000-square-meter site in Guangzhou, for a new US consulate general.
Meanwhile China will acquire a 10,800-square-meter property in Washington, Boucher added.
"I have to say, having worked in our facilities in China, many of us have been looking forward to this day for a long, long time," he added in a light-hearted reference to the current US embassy, which has no set-back from the street and was the scene of furious protests after the Belgrade bombing in May 1999.
Boucher worked for years in the region, including a stint as consul general in Hong Kong from 1996 to 1999, and deputy principal officer at the Shanghai consulate from 1984 to 86.
The Beijing embassy served as a liaison office before diplomatic relations were established in 1979. It is a squat, brown building which became so cramped that some staff had to move out into portable cabins on the embassy grounds.
The Chinese would not mind a little more room either.
"We are short of space," an embassy spokesman said, adding that the new embassy would be in the Van Ness area of northwest Washington.
"For many years, we've been working on this. We're very glad that Admiral Prueher and the Chinese have been able to bring these discussions to a conclusion," Boucher said.
Prueher said in January after arriving in Beijing that a new embassy and better military-to-military dialogue to avoid "miscalculations" were among his top priorities.
Further proof that military ties, suspended after the bombing, were back on track came in Washington on Wednesday. Gen. Yu Yongbo of the powerful Central Military Commission had what Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon called a "very good meeting" with Defence Secretary William Cohen on Asia-Pacific issues. [Source: chinadaily.com.cn]
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