http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/09/international/asia/09PREX.html?ex=1071550800
INTERERSTING READ...IF U DONT SUB TO NYT...(ITS FREE), THEN HERE IS SOME MEAT 4 U!
THE SITUATION IS DELICATE....STILL, WE ARE ASKING THESE PPLE TO GIVE UP THEIR VOICE AND VOTE....
SELF DETERMINATION AND TAIWAN DO NOT GO 2GETHER.
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U.S. Asks Taiwan to Avoid a Vote Provoking China
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: December 9, 2003
ASHINGTON, Dec. 8 The Bush administration issued an unusually strong warning to Taiwan on Monday not to hold a referendum that could fuel the island's independence movement. The move apparently was an effort to quell a growing political storm in Asia before it requires deeper American intervention.
The warning came just a day before President Bush is to meet China's new prime minister, Wen Jiabao, at the White House.
All three parties China, Taiwan and the United States are engaged in a delicate dance that involves a potent mix of international diplomacy and domestic politics. Taiwan's president is up for re-election next year, the Bush administration is relying heavily on Chinese help to defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis and stem the growing trade deficit, and China is trying to leverage its growing economic and military power for advantage against Taiwan.
Administration officials insisted that there was no change in the fundamental one-China policy, and the State Department in recent weeks had said it opposed steps that could lead to independence for Taiwan.
But Monday's warning was usually blunt, and officials went further by saying they were abandoning three decades of deliberate ambiguity about how far either China or Taiwan could go in their constant maneuverings for the upper hand on the issue of reunification or independence.
"What you're seeing here is the dropping of the ambiguity for both sides because we cannot sort of imply to the Taiwan side that we're sort of agnostic towards moves toward Taiwan independence," a senior administration official told reporters on Monday. "But at the same time, we've got to make it clear to the Chinese that this is not a green light for you to contemplate the use of force or coercion against Taiwan."
The statements on Monday will be broadly interpreted as a warning to Taiwan that Washington opposes not only any declaration of independence, but even political discussion or a referendum on the subject. That is bound to anger pro-Taiwan members of Congress and neo-conservatives who had been celebrating Mr. Bush's recent declaration that spreading democracy is the core mission of his foreign policy.
Last month, according to Taiwanese and American officials, the White House quietly sent the director of Asian affairs on the National Security Council, James Moriarty, to deliver a face-to-face caution to Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, about his plans to hold a referendum in March calling for China to withdraw ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan.
Mr. Chen, who is facing re-election, has insisted that the referendum would not center on independence. But clearly the missile question is a rough substitute for mention of that word, and Beijing has expressed alarm about the precedent of holding a vote on any delicate political topic.
Taiwanese officials said they had not been notified of any change in the American handling of the tensions between Taiwan and China.
Mr. Bush is expected to deliver a warning against any Chinese contemplation of coercion of Taiwan to Mr. Wen on Tuesday morning. The Chinese prime minister is expected to discuss the range of Chinese-American relations, from North Korea to weapons proliferation to Washington's demand that China let its currency float to reduce the its huge trade surplus with the United States.
Since arriving in the United States on Sunday, Mr. Wen has reflected a predictably hard line on Taiwan. Yet he has been more muted than the Chinese military officers who warned last week that Taiwan was facing an "abyss of war" and that China would accept any economic penalty to prevent Taiwan from using the referendum to advance the independence movement.
Such declarations leave Mr. Bush in a delicate position on an issue he, like his predecessors, has tried to finesse. His recent calls for support of democracies around the world, especially the Middle East, leave him in a poor position to condemn freely held voting on Taiwan, a place where authoritarianism has given way to a burgeoning democracy.
Post edited by Aria Giovanni.pZ at 12/8/2003 10:55:28 PM
------------------------------------
YOUR FUTURE SECRETARY OF CAPITALS ASKS YOU TO
VOTE FOR DOMINUS!!!!
INTERERSTING READ...IF U DONT SUB TO NYT...(ITS FREE), THEN HERE IS SOME MEAT 4 U!
THE SITUATION IS DELICATE....STILL, WE ARE ASKING THESE PPLE TO GIVE UP THEIR VOICE AND VOTE....
SELF DETERMINATION AND TAIWAN DO NOT GO 2GETHER.
**************************************
U.S. Asks Taiwan to Avoid a Vote Provoking China
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: December 9, 2003
ASHINGTON, Dec. 8 The Bush administration issued an unusually strong warning to Taiwan on Monday not to hold a referendum that could fuel the island's independence movement. The move apparently was an effort to quell a growing political storm in Asia before it requires deeper American intervention.
The warning came just a day before President Bush is to meet China's new prime minister, Wen Jiabao, at the White House.
All three parties China, Taiwan and the United States are engaged in a delicate dance that involves a potent mix of international diplomacy and domestic politics. Taiwan's president is up for re-election next year, the Bush administration is relying heavily on Chinese help to defuse the North Korean nuclear crisis and stem the growing trade deficit, and China is trying to leverage its growing economic and military power for advantage against Taiwan.
Administration officials insisted that there was no change in the fundamental one-China policy, and the State Department in recent weeks had said it opposed steps that could lead to independence for Taiwan.
But Monday's warning was usually blunt, and officials went further by saying they were abandoning three decades of deliberate ambiguity about how far either China or Taiwan could go in their constant maneuverings for the upper hand on the issue of reunification or independence.
"What you're seeing here is the dropping of the ambiguity for both sides because we cannot sort of imply to the Taiwan side that we're sort of agnostic towards moves toward Taiwan independence," a senior administration official told reporters on Monday. "But at the same time, we've got to make it clear to the Chinese that this is not a green light for you to contemplate the use of force or coercion against Taiwan."
The statements on Monday will be broadly interpreted as a warning to Taiwan that Washington opposes not only any declaration of independence, but even political discussion or a referendum on the subject. That is bound to anger pro-Taiwan members of Congress and neo-conservatives who had been celebrating Mr. Bush's recent declaration that spreading democracy is the core mission of his foreign policy.
Last month, according to Taiwanese and American officials, the White House quietly sent the director of Asian affairs on the National Security Council, James Moriarty, to deliver a face-to-face caution to Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, about his plans to hold a referendum in March calling for China to withdraw ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan.
Mr. Chen, who is facing re-election, has insisted that the referendum would not center on independence. But clearly the missile question is a rough substitute for mention of that word, and Beijing has expressed alarm about the precedent of holding a vote on any delicate political topic.
Taiwanese officials said they had not been notified of any change in the American handling of the tensions between Taiwan and China.
Mr. Bush is expected to deliver a warning against any Chinese contemplation of coercion of Taiwan to Mr. Wen on Tuesday morning. The Chinese prime minister is expected to discuss the range of Chinese-American relations, from North Korea to weapons proliferation to Washington's demand that China let its currency float to reduce the its huge trade surplus with the United States.
Since arriving in the United States on Sunday, Mr. Wen has reflected a predictably hard line on Taiwan. Yet he has been more muted than the Chinese military officers who warned last week that Taiwan was facing an "abyss of war" and that China would accept any economic penalty to prevent Taiwan from using the referendum to advance the independence movement.
Such declarations leave Mr. Bush in a delicate position on an issue he, like his predecessors, has tried to finesse. His recent calls for support of democracies around the world, especially the Middle East, leave him in a poor position to condemn freely held voting on Taiwan, a place where authoritarianism has given way to a burgeoning democracy.
Post edited by Aria Giovanni.pZ at 12/8/2003 10:55:28 PM
------------------------------------
YOUR FUTURE SECRETARY OF CAPITALS ASKS YOU TO
VOTE FOR DOMINUS!!!!