The Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Zhu Rongji, admitted yesterday that relations between Beijing and Washington had suffered a setback over suspicions that a Chinese-American spy had stolen American nuclear secrets.
Mr Zhu derided the allegations as "a tale from the Arabian Nights", but acknowledged that he expected a hostile atmosphere because of "anti-China rage" when he visits Washington next month.
Known as the architect of reform, the Chinese leader also roundly chided the West for supporting jailed pro-democracy activists, saying without elaboration: "The situation is not as you imagine it to be."
Mr Zhu was speaking at a remarkable 90-minute televised press conference in Beijing's Great Hall of the People at the end of an 11-day session of the National People's Congress which yesterday passed a key amendment to the constitution elevating the role of the private sector in communist China's economy.
Asked about deteriorating China-US relations, Mr Zhu drew attention to a cover story critical of China in the February 22nd issue of Businessweek magazine. It reflected how "China-US relations are victimised by the internal struggle in the United States," he said.
Mr Zhu added: "I have been a victim, too, because on the cover of that magazine my photo makes me look like a dead man."
Recently, the White House has come under pressure from the Republican-dominated Congress to re-evaluate its policy of engagement with China because of the spying case and human rights and trade issues.
When it was suggested he was walking into a minefield in Washington, Mr Zhu replied that the momentum towards a constructive and strategic Sino-US partnership was quite good. "However, due to various reasons, an anti-Chinese rage in the US has caused concern on our side. I don't think I am walking into a minefield but I do expect to encounter some hostility and an unfriendly atmosphere there."
Many reports predicted his visit could not be successful, "but I must go there to let you vent your anger and air your complaints".
Some people in the US had made two mistakes, he said. They had underestimated the US capacity to keep its secrets, as the laboratory in Los Alamos had very tight security and those who worked there knew only a small part of each operation. US investigators had also failed to find any evidence to charge the suspect, a Chinese-American scientist, Dr Wen Ho Lee, "so they could only fire him."
People should also not underestimate China's capacity to develop and research its military technology, he said in a hurt tone. Chinese people were intelligent and diligent and China could develop its own nuclear bombs and military technology: "It's only a matter of time." He dismissed as a fairy tale the charges made in the New York Times earlier this month that Chinese nuclear tests in the mid-1990s showed top-secret knowledge of America's most advanced miniature warhead, the W-88.
On human rights - also a growing source of tension with the US - Mr Zhu said bluntly: "Don't support the so-called pro-democracy activists . . . If they return [to power] in China there will be no legal system and no democracy and not a situation as you imagine it would be."
He added: "Only we know how we can best preserve human rights in China." The country was not perfect but had only emerged 50 years ago from a long history of feudalism, dictatorship and semi-colonialism and was currently improving its legal system.
"Foreign friends are welcome to criticise but don't be too impatient," he said, drumming the table-top. "Actually I'm more impatient than you are." Mr Zhu also used the toughest language yet to condemn US proposals for a Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) system to provide a nuclear umbrella for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
TMD, he said, would violate international agreements and if it included Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a breakaway province, it would be "an encroachment on Chinese sovereignty and integrity and internal affairs."
He dismissed claims that China planed to aim 600 missiles at Taiwan, asking scornfully: "I don't know that. So how could you know that?" He did not rule out the use of force to reunite China and Taiwan, however, "otherwise Taiwan would be in a perpetual state of disunity with the Motherland".
At the end of a masterful performance, Mr Zhu said he was very hopeful of a deal for China's entry to the World Trade Organisation, but a considerable gap remained. In the Congress, some 99 per cent of the 3,000 hand-picked delegates voted in favour of Mr Zhu's economic reforms, but 12 per cent refused to vote for the annual budget in protest against rising crime and corruption.
Mr Zhu insisted China would not retreat from tough reforms, including the closure of loss-making state enterprises, despite unemployment and problems caused by the Asian economic downturn.