MP denies China seeks base in East Timor ALISON BEVEGE | November 28th, 2011 CHINA has not approached East Timor about establishing a military base in answer to the US troop build-up in Darwin, a Timorese member of parliament has said. Speculation arose last week after the Jakarta Post reported China was said to have proposed establishing a military base in East Timor. "While Timor Leste has yet to approve the proposal, China has continued to assist it by supporting the development of Timor Leste's state offices and public facilities," the Post said. But Jose Teixeira, a member of East Timor's main parliamentary party, Fretilin, and a member of the Defence, Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, told the NT News that no such intent had been expressed. "I am certain the Chinese did not and will not ask," he said. But Timorese leaders are concerned about the strategic issues raised by the new presence of US troops in Darwin. East Timor Secretary of State Agio Pereira wrote recently on an online forum that the US move to increase its military presence in Australia's north could cause the Chinese elite to believe they must in turn increase their military capability to ensure their survival. "This new Cold War is heating up," he wrote. The Chinese embassy told the NT News China would "never adopt the approach of military expansion now or in the future, no matter how its economy develops". China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin said in remarks published on the embassy website that China did not object to the development of "normal bilateral relations" between the US and Australia. Last week independent MLA Gerry Wood said that the US troop build-up in Darwin was partly a response to China's rising military might as it had been moving its economic power slowly but surely into the Pacific, spending up big on projects. "China isn't a democracy," he told Parliament. "You only have to look at Tiananmen Square to understand what China is about when people have different points of view." http://superkoran.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=55122 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
