| Friday, August 9, 2002 |
| MAC affirms status quo policy to US |
| Published: August 9, 2002 Source: Taiwan News |
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Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen said after her arrival in New York that her visit to Washington is mainly aimed at helping U.S. authorities understand Taiwan's current status. "The island's real situation is that its basic policy (toward Beijing) remains unchanged," the mainland policy planner told a room of reporters from Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong who met Tsai at the Washington railway station. Neither Taiwan's representative office in the United States nor the U.S. government have issued any public statements on Tsai's current visit. One U.S. State Department official, however, said that U.S. authorities have keep in frequent contact with Taiwan officials. But he added that the U.S. government has never commented on the details of those meetings. Two U.S. think tanks -- the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute -- have invited more than 10 scholars and experts to hold a seminar with Tsai on Thursday. U.S. officials and experts are expected to reiterate to Tsai the importance of mutual trust between Taipei and Washington as well as to push Taipei to refrain from making any comments or taking any steps that would provoke Beijing. Tsai arrived in New York on Monday as part of Premier Yu Shyi-kun's entourage, which made a transit stop en route to the Caribbean and Central America for official visits to four of Taiwan's diplomatic allies in the region. The main purpose of Tsai's visit to Washington was to clarify President Chen's controversial "one country on each side [of the Taiwan Strait]" statement to relevant U.S. officials and academics. Before Premier Yu left for Haiti, one of Taiwan's diplomatic allies, Tsai and Yu had a breakfast meeting Thursday morning with scholars from U.S. think tanks, explaining to them that President Chen was only stating the status quo of Taiwan and expects the sovereignty of Taiwan not to be destroyed or changed. As for Chen's call for referendum legislation, Tsai said that the 23 million citizens of Taiwan are the only ones with the right to decide the fate of Taiwan. If China attempts to force Taiwan to accept "one China" or "one country, two systems" formula to change Taiwan's status, the Taiwanese people should be defensive, self-preserving and maintain the right to decide Taiwan's fate through a democratic mechanism, she said. |
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