China Embassies

A mid-level intelligence officer assigned to the CIA persistently questioned the targeting of a building that turned out to be the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, but his concerns went unheeded inside the spy agency and at the U.S. military's European Command, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday. "I'm not sure that's the right building," the senior official quoted the analyst as saying.

Although China's Communist regime continues to trot out its hard-line rhetoric over the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia last spring, Washington and Beijing have quietly resumed talks in some of the most sensitive areas of their troubled relationship. In particular, dialogue has restarted in the key areas suspended by China after the attack May 8: human rights, control of nuclear weapons and military affairs. With Sino-U.S.

Although China's Communist regime continues to trot out its hard-line rhetoric over the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia last spring, Washington and Beijing have quietly resumed talks in some of the most sensitive areas of their troubled relationship. In particular, dialogue has restarted in the key areas suspended by China after the attack May 8: human rights, control of nuclear weapons and military affairs. With Sino-U.S.

In a clear sign of a warming trend in U.S.-China relations, Washington and Beijing have agreed to resume military-to-military contacts at the highest level. In response to an invitation from China, the Clinton administration will send Defense Secretary William S. Cohen and the commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Dennis Cutler Blair, to Beijing in coming months. The invitation was extended during 14 hours of talks in Washington this week between top Pentagon policymakers and Lt.

A Justice Department investigation into improper political fund-raising activities has uncovered evidence that representatives of China sought to direct contributions from foreign sources to the Democratic National Committee before the 1996 presidential campaign, officials familiar with the inquiry told the Washington Post. Sensitive intelligence information shows that the Chinese Embassy in Washington was used for planning contributions to the DNC, the sources said.

Shining flashlights into the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles and singing the Tibetan national anthem, about 75 Tibetans and supporters joined Friday evening to protest human rights violations in their homeland on the 30th anniversary of an abortive uprising against Communist rule. Even though consular officials had left for the day, "the world people are watching," said Geshe Gyeltsen, a Buddhist teacher who led prayers for world peace.

A coalition of Southern California groups supporting the democratic movement in China said it is expecting 10,000 people for a Los Angeles rally and march to the Chinese consulate Sunday afternoon. Monterey Park City Councilwoman Judy Chu, Chinese journalist Chang Qing Cao and two Chinese students at UCLA will be among the speakers. Sue Fan, one of the organizers of the Peace March Organizing Committee of Southern California, said Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.

China on Wednesday ordered France to close its Canton consulate in one month in retaliation for France's reported plans to sell 60 Mirage fighter planes to Taiwan. It was China's first formal act of retaliation after repeated warnings that France would pay a heavy price for the sale. The French government has refused to confirm the sale, but French and Taiwanese news reports said French companies signed contracts in November to sell 60 2000-5 jet fighters worth $2.6 billion and 1,000 missiles.

Thousands of protesters continued to march on the U.S. Embassy here Monday, but China tried to rein in public anger and for the first time held out the possibility of a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Sino-U.S. ties caused by NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia. In a list of demands made by telephone to U.S. Ambassador James R.

Amid profuse apologies from NATO leaders and a convulsion of outrage in China, shaken alliance officials admitted Saturday that they were unsure how their aircraft managed to strike the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade--an apparent error that ranks among the most serious mistakes of the 6 1/2-week air campaign over Yugoslavia. The embassy was hit in an apparent case of mistaken identity.

A mid-level intelligence officer assigned to the CIA persistently questioned the targeting of a building that turned out to be the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, but his concerns went unheeded inside the spy agency and at the U.S. military's European Command, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday. "I'm not sure that's the right building," the senior official quoted the analyst as saying.

Thousands of protesters continued to march on the U.S. Embassy here Monday, but China tried to rein in public anger and for the first time held out the possibility of a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Sino-U.S. ties caused by NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia. In a list of demands made by telephone to U.S. Ambassador James R.

Defense Secretary William S. Cohen ordered a tightening Monday of the Pentagon's system of picking bomb targets after a misdirected airstrike on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade exposed flaws in existing procedures. Cohen said the government will institute new, more reliable procedures for updating maps, for reporting on the location of embassies and for checking to ensure future airstrikes don't hit sensitive sites.

Amid profuse apologies from NATO leaders and a convulsion of outrage in China, shaken alliance officials admitted Saturday that they were unsure how their aircraft managed to strike the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade--an apparent error that ranks among the most serious mistakes of the 6 1/2-week air campaign over Yugoslavia. The embassy was hit in an apparent case of mistaken identity.

Officials' acknowledgment that the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade could have been the result of poor intelligence work may set off demands for a review of the entire data-gathering system used by NATO for its air campaign in Yugoslavia. U.S. and NATO officials have mostly ruled out mechanical or pilot error, believing instead that "the fault here is in the targeting. . . . The weapon hit what it was supposed to," said one U.S. official. "We just don't know why."

NATO warplanes pounded Belgrade early today, hitting the Chinese Embassy, setting it ablaze and killing two. The attack, hours after allied cluster bombs killed 15 civilians in the city of Nis, angered Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's government as it was signaling a willingness to discuss a peace plan for Kosovo province.

In a new sign of cooling relations between the United States and China, the State Department announced Thursday that it has imposed the same travel restrictions on Chinese employees of the U.N. Secretariat as now are imposed on Soviet Bloc personnel. China's U.N. employees must give notice to the United States any time they want to travel more than 25 miles from Manhattan for anything other than official business.

China appointed a new ambassador to the United States on Thursday as his predecessor's term of office expired, state television said. Zhu Qizhen, 61, will replace Han Xu, who went to Washington in May, 1985. His appointment was approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's nominal parliament. A vice foreign minister, Zhu is head of the Foreign Ministry's department of American and Oceanian affairs.

A Justice Department investigation into improper political fund-raising activities has uncovered evidence that representatives of China sought to direct contributions from foreign sources to the Democratic National Committee before the 1996 presidential campaign, officials familiar with the inquiry told the Washington Post. Sensitive intelligence information shows that the Chinese Embassy in Washington was used for planning contributions to the DNC, the sources said.

Monterey Park city and library officials rejected an offer from the Chinese Embassy to showcase rare Tibetan documents and books. They also declined an offer to let the library keep the Tibetan language books after the show. Because of the decades-long Chinese military occupation of Tibet, Monterey Park Library Trustee Joe Rubin objected to holding the exhibit at the Bruggemeyer Memorial Library. The other trustees agreed with Rubin and voted 3 to 0 on Feb. 9 to turn down the embassy's offer.