Country Profile: China

— -- China, the third-largest country in the world, once stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences.

The country, which shares a small a border with Afghanistan, was troubled by the Taliban's influence on its population. It blamed the Islamic fundamentalists for fomenting violence in the mainly Muslim northwestern province of Xinjiang. To combat terrorism, China has strengthened its relationship with Russia in recent years.

In November 1997, Beijing and Russia signed an agreement that resolved almost all outstanding border disagreements between the nations and in July 2001, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation.

One month earlier, Putin and Jiang, considering both their nations victims of terrorists, joined the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to form the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, which is designed to promote regional stability and combat terrorism in the region.

Since the terrorist attacks on America that left more than 6,000 people dead or missing, Russia and China have joined the nations pledging support of the U.S. war on terrorism. Intelligence officials from China have met with Secretary of State Colin Powell and administration officials to share information on terrorist groups they may be targeting.

Up-and-Down Relations

However, the United States and China have not always been so cooperative with each other. Relations were strained in April 2001, when a Chinese pilot was killed during a collision between his fighter plane and a U.S. aircraft flying over international waters south of China.

China demanded an apology and refused to let the crew of the U.S. aircraft return home for 11 days. The damaged U.S. aircraft was not released to U.S. officials for three months.

Relations were also strained when the United States accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in May 1999. The relationship did not begin to improve until October 1999, when both sides reached on agreement on payments to the families of those killed in the bombing and diplomatic property damage payments to China and Belgrade.