US astonished by Taiwan leader's hardline policies on China

Politics Taiwan Politics
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[quote]WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States said it was astonished by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian’s planned hardline policies on China, warning they could send the wrong signals to Beijing.
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The independence-leaning Chen said Sunday he would “seriously consider” abolishing guidelines on reunification with China and the body that created them, in a move that could anger its giant neighbour.

He also reportedly wanted Taipei to consider applying to rejoin the
United Nations in the name of Taiwan and draft a new constitution and put it to a referendum next year.

China considers Taiwan part of its territory even though the island has been ruled as a de facto independent state since the end of a civil war in 1949. It threatens to invade if Taipei declares formal independence.

In a rare move, the US State Department issued a statement Monday defining US policy towards Taiwan, emphasizing that Washington “does not support Taiwan’s independence and opposes unilateral changes to the status quo by either Taiwan or Beijing.”

The United States, which is obliged by law to offer Taiwan a means of self-defense if its security is threatened, is the leading arms supplier to the island despite switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

“We’re issuing this in the wake of some comments by President Chen in Taiwan that we don’t want to be inflammatory or send the wrong signal, so we thought it useful to reiterate US policy on the subject,” said Adam Ereli, the deputy State Department spokesman, alerting reporters of the statement at the beginning of the department’s daily briefing on Monday.

A US State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters that Chen had "said some stuff that is going to spin people up.

“We don’t want people to get spun up. We don’t want China to get spun up, we don’t want Taiwan to get spun up. So we thought it would be useful to make it clear in a public way that the goal post haven’t changed on this,” the official said.

Asked to identify aspects of Chen’s statement that could send the wrong signals, the official said, “Like Taiwan wanting a seat at the UN, change in constitution … things that he said he wouldn’t say again and now he said it again.”

“It’s like woah, woah, woah…,” said the official, sounding that Chen was pushing things too far.

One of the key proposals Chen revealed Sunday was abolishing the National Unification Council, set up in 1990 and once the island’s top policy-making forum on the key question of unification.

The move could fuel Beijing’s suspicions that he is pushing for independence.

Chen had said during his inauguration in 2000 that he would uphold the council and the guidelines in one of his promises not to seek formal independence for the island.

He reiterated that promise in 2004 after he was narrowly reelected for a second and final term.[/quote]

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msnbc.msn.com/id/11103977/

[quote]
U.S. warns Taiwan on China statements
Washington reacts even before Beijing to Taipei

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“Taiwan”? Oh dear. King of missed the point slightly there Mr “Journalist”. I think you’ll find the USA recognised “China” a long long time ago…

Another storm in a teacup. Everyone’s bored of the little poisoned dwarf now. No one’s paying a blind bit of attention to the twitterings of any of Taiwan’s idiot politicians, which is as it should be.

Given it’s Year of the Dog, I think they should have a Cocker Spaniel run the country. Nice sensible, even-tempered dogs. Not given to rash un-thought-out statements on cross-strait relations either.

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[quote=“hexuan”]

Given it’s Year of the Dog, I think they should have a Cocker Spaniel run the country. Nice sensible, even-tempered dogs. Not given to rash un-thought-out statements on cross-strait relations either.[/quote]

I would rather have a Lab since they are rather zen-like in their behavior. Not prone to fighting or getting involved in one. In fact they run like hell from it all.

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The world has gone to hell when the United States considers Taiwan a threat to cross-Strait stability

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If I may make one suggestion, your posts would be even more entertaining if you alternated between Blue/Green on every single post. :slight_smile:

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Have to say it, Chen’s lost me. Not that I’m going to join Ma Ying-jiu and AC_Dropout waving the old blue star any time soon, but since the WNY and CNY ‘announcements’ I now no longer consider myself pro-Chen in any way, shape or form (and most assuredly, I once did). What an awful disappointment. He’s lost the plot, and from here on in, things are only going to get worse. What a dick.

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Guangtou, that makes two of us, and we’re not even Taiwanese! Where’s our man Chewycorns to explain the meanderings of the good ship clod?

HG

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Well I’m glad the USA has stepped up to the plate and clarified its position on the matter.

The reality is that the USA military is stretched thin in the Middle East. No point trying to encourage CSB from started a war on the 3rd front with the PRC.

Personally I think CSB is suffering from a recurring nightmare of Ma Yingjiu kicking his butt at the polls, causing him to hunker down and appeal only to his base constituents.

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My take on this whole issue is that CSB has written himself out of the script. Over the past 3 years, Beijing, DC, and the pan-Blues in Taipei have all faced serious challenges.

  • Beijing was staring at creeping independence, and yet could do little about it. PLA generals promising to bathe the island in fire didn’t keep CSB from winning his second presidency.

  • the pan-Blues were facing disintegration, as well. Despite finally uniting for a presidential run, they lost the vote. They were facing defections at every level, and in every county. It was only 24 months ago that the KMT was seriously facing the question of whether they should be re-named as the ‘Taiwan guomingdan’.

  • Washington DC, on the other hand, was finding itself engaged in a foreign policy battle that was far more critical to American interests than cross-strait affairs. The only thing worse than struggling through the quagmire in Iraq while terrorists waited in every dark corner… is having to do all that while fighting the next World War in Taiwan.

So, all three of these groups put aside some of their principals for a mutually acceptable compromise. Beijing promised to lay off the rhetoric (after the anti-secession law), as long as the pan-Blues and DC did a better job of keeping CSB’s extremism in check. And everyone preserves the status quo while taking care of their other pressing issues. The solution is working to everyone’s satisfaction, so far.

CSB, on the other hand, is apparently stuck in stasis. And instead of trying to work out a compromise himself, perhaps because his ideology simply doesn’t allow a compromise, he’s going to spend the rest of his presidency as a lame-duck.

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To be fair, he spent his whole presidency and the one before it as a lame duck.

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[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Guangtou, that makes two of us, and we’re not even Taiwanese! Where’s our man Chewycorns to explain the meanderings of the good ship clod?

HG[/quote]

Make that three.

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The official Taipei explanation (voiced by the ever-qualified new foreign minister, along with the MAC’s Chairman Wu), summarizes to these three points:

  1. This isn’t official government policy; Chen Shui-bian was essentially just talking out loud, and proposing a topic for “consideration”.
  2. It’s not Taiwan that’s trying to force a change in the status quo; they’re just responding to the mainland’s new attacks and pressures (the panda spies, presumably).
  3. Chen Shui-bian didn’t warn the Americans about this particular utterance because, well, it wasn’t delivered at an “official” event.

Finally, they feel the reaction by the American side is unfair.

The American response according to today’s Chinese media:

  • at another state department press conference, James Keith reiterated the US is just hoping not to receive any more surprises.

  • and another unnamed state department source reports that they “totally reject” Taiwan’s new explanation.

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In a free and democratic country, anyone can declare it’s time to seriously consider an action. Whether the unification guidelines should be scrapped is an internal matter for Taiwan to decide, not the States or China.

Keep in mind that as popularly elected president of Taiwan, he needs to put the interest of the Taiwanese people ahead of those of the US or China.

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That point is still being contested. Currently his popularity is in the 20%.

In otherwords, he doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on.

Ignoring both the USA and PRC on the Strait Issue is suicidal on Taiwan’s part.

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CSB is a lame duck, no doubt. Someboday also point out to me:

  1. The KMT or PFP policies make any more sense?
  2. What have they achieved except obstruction of almost everything (both positive and negative)?
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Yes thanks, but there’s been a followup to this article already.

Talks were had and they agreed upon some ideas.

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You mean a less confrontational stance with the PRC? I think it makes more sense than rejecting pandas.

They have given the Taiwanese people hope and an optimistic view of how the Strait Issue can be resolved.

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  1. Nothing was added to the table.

  2. They got China to recognize there is a separate political entity in Taiwan

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[quote]Quote:

  1. The KMT or PFP policies make any more sense?

You mean a less confrontational stance with the PRC? I think it makes more sense than rejecting pandas.

Quote:
2) What have they achieved except obstruction of almost everything (both positive and negative)?

They have given the Taiwanese people hope and an optimistic view of how the Strait Issue can be resolved.

  1. We’ll see how long that lasts once they are in power again. China will stop recognizing them once they become the ruling party again.
  2. I don’t see the optimism and hope
  3. They share a part of the responsibility for the failure to reform - or even build a highway. [/quote]