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U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

QUESTION: On China, China apparently has reiterated that it is prepared to use military force to make sure that Taiwan doesn't go independent. I wondered, a, how you reacted to those continuing kinds of statements; and b, whether there were signs of new military activity by the Chinese.

MR. RUBIN: With respect to the Chinese threat, in the 1982 US-PRC communiqué, the PRC articulated its fundamental policy of resolving the Taiwan question by peaceful means. In the President's phone call with President Jiang, President Jiang assured him that the PRC's fundamental approach to resolving the Taiwan question remains peaceful reunification.

It's no secret that a refusal to rule out or renounce the use of force is part of PRC's long-standing position on this. But the long-standing position of the United States, by contrast, is that the future of Taiwan is a matter for the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to resolve. The United States has an abiding interest that any resolution be peaceful. We encourage the two sides to engage in a meaningful, substantive cross-Strait dialogue. What I can say is that the President did call President Jiang to express his concern about developments in the cross-Strait situation. It is similar to the concern that we expressed here from the podium last week, and to urge that the dialogue occur. We also affirmed our long-standing position that there is one China.

With respect to your question about what's going on, the President also made the point that a deterioration of the atmosphere of the Strait and the climate there serves no one's interest. I'm not in a position to comment on every intelligence issue associated with this, but we do not have suggestions that there is a - as of today - a military mobilization going on. I can say that there have not been any extraordinary developments. Beyond that, I'm not in a position to be specific about every specific development. There are normally, in areas like this - in China, countries with large militaries - there are activities regularly. But beyond saying that there have not been any extraordinary developments, I'm not prepared to comment.

We have urged both sides - China and Taiwan - to engage in dialogue and resolve this situation in a peaceful manner.

QUESTION: I just want to see where you come out on this part, though. On the one hand, Jiang says we don't rule out the use of force; on the other hand, he says we affirm this 1982 communiqué saying that we're going to do it by peaceful means. I mean, where do you see them putting the stress right now? Is it on the glass half-empty or the glass half-full?

MR. RUBIN: Well, certainly the glass is halfway. The best answer I can offer you is that we have expressed our concern. We have said that comments made by the Taiwan side were unhelpful. We have indicated that the Taiwan authorities have told us that there is no change. They have said conflicting things, I agree, on the subject. As recently as today they are saying it remains unchanged, but as recently as yesterday they're indicating that they are going to have a new nomenclature for their policy. What counts for us is results, and the results will be measured by whether the dialogue gets off the ground and whether the dialogue can work. That is what we will be watching and keeping our eye on.

QUESTION: The Taiwanese say that they're going to be sending a special envoy here to explain exactly their position. Do you know anything about that?

MR. RUBIN: I do not. I don't believe that is expected to happen. I do believe that we are going to be in regular contact at fairly high levels in our unofficial dialogue with Taiwan, and that will occur. But I'm not aware of special envoy coming here. I know there was some talk of that, but I don't think that's the way things will play out in the next few days.

QUESTION: Is the United States sending any senior officials to Beijing?

MR. RUBIN: Beijing - at this point I don't have any new travel to offer you. I can confirm for you, again, that Secretary Albright will be speaking to and meeting with the foreign minister of China in the margins of the ASEAN meeting, which she will leave for on Thursday.

QUESTION: What are the ground rules in having official contact with the Taiwanese, given the fact that there are no diplomatic relations?

MR. RUBIN: Well, we have an unofficial relationship; we have the American Institute in Taiwan. They have Taiwan officials that come here from time to time. We have discussions with Taiwan on economic matters at various levels. We do meet with them in an unofficial way because we have a one-China policy, but we do meet with them on a regular basis. If there's some actual formal modality for that, I'll try to get someone to put that on paper and provide it to you.

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QUESTION: China claims that they have neutron bomb technology. Is that technology - can you describe it as stolen from the US, which we have been hearing for months? And also, how much do you think relations will effect the US and China relations because of this stolen technology, if possible?

MR. RUBIN: I believe on Friday I was asked about this extensively and gave our formal reaction to this. The Jeremiah Report, to the best of my recollection, indicated that it's not possible to determine the extent to which any stolen technology contributed to the particular design of a Chinese weapon. Whether it was our secrets, other countries' secrets or their own development is not possible to determine conclusively. We did express deep concern about what's been going on in this area and have been taking a number of steps to remedy our concerns about this. We have no illusions that China does, like other countries, try to obtain access to American military technology, which Kosovo demonstrated is the envy of the world. So we have no illusions about that.

So the extent to which the nuclear weapon referred to by China was a result of their own research helped by third parties or theft of technology by third parties or the United States I don't believe is a knowable fact.

QUESTION: If the US has a one-China policy then, like you say, you meet Taiwanese officials also on the background or off the record. Why do you meet Chinese when you have one-China policy? Does that mean there is some hope of some kind?

MR. RUBIN: I will go back and look for the justification that was provided the first time we publicly discussed our unofficial contact with officials from Taiwan. I'm sure that this has been going on a long, long time. There have probably been ten spokesmen between the time of that first meeting and me. I'm sure the first nine did a perfectly good job of explaining that to you and I wouldn't want to interfere with their excellent work.

QUESTION: Do you consider this as an internal matter of China?

MR. RUBIN: I think I've answered this question as far as I can.

QUESTION: I just want to go back to the alleged envoy who was coming. Did the US discourage them or tell them not to send someone?

MR. RUBIN: What I can say is that we do expect to have discussions with Taipei and Beijing over the coming weeks to urge that the next round of dialogue be scheduled. We have frequent communications with both sides. As you know, Darryl Johnson met with President Lee on his courtesy call upon leaving Taipei. We do expect there to be other discussions, but this particular discussion and meeting that you raise I don't think is going to happen and I don't think that there is a problem about communications. It may be how those communications occur, not whether they occur.

QUESTION: Well, does that mean that the US is uncomfortable with having them send someone in an official capacity?

MR. RUBIN: No, I think we've had dialogue, we'll continue to have dialogue. We want to have discussion in the best way our diplomats judge it can be helpful. I'm just saying I don't believe there is a high-level envoy from Taipei coming here, even if that idea had been thrown out there by others.

QUESTION: There seem to be contradictory perceptions by both Chinese sides in this about the US position. According to The Washington Post --

MR. RUBIN: That's bad. There should be no contradictory perceptions of the position. That means I've failed in my work.

QUESTION: According to this, Jiang warned Clinton that anti-China forces in the US should not be allowed to succeed with supporting any bid by Taiwan to declare formal independence from China. However, according to The Wall Street Journal, the Foreign Minister of Taiwan blamed the US in part for precipitating the crisis by sidling closer to China. So which is the reality?

MR. RUBIN: Well, we didn't schedule the interview.

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QUESTION: Back to China and the telephone conversation between Mr. Clinton and Mr. Jiang yesterday, Mr. Jiang reportedly saying that China will not give up the right of military intervention, using force against Taiwan. Jamie, I asked you this off the record but let me go on the record. Is this not truly the number one hot-button issue with the PRC, this business of one Taiwan and unification of Taiwan and all of this? Is this not the number one possible flash point in that part of the Western Pacific?

MR. RUBIN: We are very concerned about this issue; we have been for a long time. I have not been in a discussion between the Secretary of State and the Chinese Foreign Minister in which Taiwan was not a prominent part of the discussion. I would expect that to continue.

QUESTION: Jamie, once again, the telephone conversation yesterday, what's being reported - is it true what Mr. Jiang said to the President, or can you say?

MR. RUBIN: I think in response to several of your colleagues' questions, I answered that question. I'd be happy to do it again, but I did answer that question, exactly the question you just asked me, in response to two or three questions from some of your colleagues.

But to repeat that information for your personal benefit, let me say that the President did speak to President Jiang. He called to express his concern about developments in the cross-Strait situation. President Jiang assured him that PRC China's fundamental approach to resolving the Taiwan question remains peaceful reunification. There was a refusal to renounce the use of force, which is part of China's long-standing position. That hasn't changed, and the Chinese have made that clear.

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