By IPS Correspondents
BEIJING, Sep 26 2005 (IPS)

Despite snags in the North Korean nuclear deal, China considers the joint-agreement, at the end of six-party talks last week, a diplomatic coup that is in keeping with its emergence as a dominant political entity in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

In numerous articles and interviews, China analysts here said the big victory lay in convincing the United States to retract its long-standing unilateral demands and agree that it is beneficial to allow in multilateral interests, even if the results mean more arduous and difficult negotiations lie ahead.

From bilateral point of view, Beijing regards the agreement a major step forward in persuading Washington to ”respect mutual differences” – a policy principle it considers essential in managing the complex and difficult relationship between China and the U.S.

”It is a big diplomatic success for China to make the U.S. agree to ‘respect existing differences’,” argues Yan Xuetong, professor at the Institute of International Relations at Qinghua University.

”Seeking common ground” is one way of conducting diplomatic negotiations, while ”reserving differences” is another one and for China it is a major coup to have succeeded in making the U.S. agree to acknowledge differences with the other side, Yan says.

China has, for years, argued it is entitled to an individual path of development and that universal values of democracy and freedom, supported by the U.S., cannot be blindly applied to its society. Beijing defends its political system and human rights record by arguing that advances in economic development had raised living standards of Chinese people.

”Seeking common ground while reserving differences” has been enshrined as one of the cornerstones of China’s foreign policy but Beijing has had little success applying its policy doctrine on diplomatic arena so far.

The joint agreement signed between the six parties in the North Korean nuclear talks last week represents a first, and a very significant one, according to Chinese analysts.

In the joint statement, Beijing managed to convince the U.S., along with Japan, South Korea and Russia to ”respect” the North’s ”sovereignty and right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy”.

It also secured the commitment of the negotiating parties to provide Pyongyang with ”economic cooperation” in the fields of trade and investment and to ”discuss at the appropriate time the subject of the provision of a light-water reactor”.

In return, Pyongyang agreed to dismantle existing nuclear weapons, abandon efforts to produce new ones and re-admit international inspectors to its facilities. Even Beijing acknowledges that the preliminary agreement says nothing about when or under what conditions the North would comply with these obligations.

”It (the document) still contains some abstract, generic and inexact terms. Each paragraph is subject to interpretation by each party, which may be the seed of future disputes,” Pang Zhongying, professor of international studies at Tianjin Nankai University, conceded in the China Daily.

Quick to dispel overreaching optimism, just a day after signing the agreement, Pyongyang declared it would not scrap its nuclear weapons programme until the U.S. provided it with an alternative to the reactor it now possesses.

A few days later, it appeared to soften its stance, saying it was willing to negotiate with the U.S. and even proposing a visit to the North by the U.S. top negotiator.

Pyongyang’s track record of broken agreements dogs the Sep 19 joint statement too. North Korean’s regime violated the nuclear freeze it had promised to the Clinton administration under the Agreed Framework in 1994 by secretly continuing its nuclear-weapons programme.

Still, argues Zhu Feng, professor of international relations at Beijing University, China’s success in persuading Washington to drop its ”hawkish attitude” in the face of numerous demands by Pyongyang is a ”remarkable success”. ”It shows diplomatic authority and capacity”.

”The role China has been playing is quite obvious,” Pang asserted in his opinion piece. ”China has created an opportunity for the U.S. and the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) to talk directly and within a multilateral framework, under which the two countries conducted direct exchanges”.

”The passing of the joint statement bolsters Beijing’s international reputation,” Pang concluded.

Adds Yan Xuetong: ”It demonstrates that China is eager to meet its international obligations of a big country. As President Hu Jintao said at the United Nations General Assembly this month, China will undertake not only economic but also political responsibility suited for a big country”.

Fresh from brokering the nuclear deal with the North, Beijing felt emboldened to rebuke Washington’s criticism of its political system, human rights record and international role, citing again ”respect for existing differences”.

As part of recently established bilateral strategic dialogue, Beijing rejected Washington’s new call for China to embrace an open and democratic government.

Responding to a forthright speech by Robert Zoellick, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, which appealed for a political change, Chinese Foreign Ministry insisted last week that Washington should mind its own business when it comes to Chinese domestic affairs.

”Internal affairs should be handled by the government and people of each country,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. ”We should respect another country’s right to choose its own development road”.

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