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China and U.S. must cooperate, Clinton says

Posted on: Monday, 12 September 2005, 04:36 CDT

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Former U.S. president Bill Clinton said on Monday that while there were concerns in the United States over China's military buildup, it would be "idiotic" for both sides to pursue anything but peace.

"We will find that our economic relations and our security relations and our interests ... will be so great that we will be working together," Clinton told a business audience in Hong Kong.

"It is idiotic to contemplate a future that is anything other than one of cooperation between China and the U.S. for future prosperity. But on the other hand, it will be foolish not to prepare for the worst."

Apart from months of bitter wrangling between the two countries over textiles, energy, Chinese counterfeiting and China's exchange rate policies, fears are also growing in Washington over the recent overhaul of the Chinese military.

China's defense budget has been growing in double digits almost every year, outpacing its rapid economic growth.

The Pentagon said in a report in July it was concerned about China's military modernization and economic might and feared that a changing balance of power in Asia could threaten self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.

Source: REUTERS

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