• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

U.S. STANCE OF OPPOSING TAIWAN NAME CHANGE REMAINS SAME: STATE DEP'T

ROC Central News Agency

2005-10-21 11:33:02

    Washington, Oct. 20 (CNA) The U.S. State Department on Thursday reiterated that its policy of opposing a change to Taiwan's official name remains unaltered.

    In response to a question raised at a regular press briefing regarding remarks made earlier in the day by former ROC President Lee Teng-hui that Taiwan should change its official name from the "Republic of China" to the "Republic of Taiwan, " State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that there's been "no change in our policy."

    Lee said after addressing the National Press Club that as the international community has failed to recognize the ROC, the nation should change its official name in order to gain the acceptance of other countries.

    According to Lee, he had done all he could during his time as president to gain international recognition for the country, but to no avail. "The international community does not only refuse to recognize the ROC, it also confuses the name of the People's Republic of China with that of the Republic of China, or even considers that Taiwan is part of the PRC, " he added.

    In an interview with the Washington Post which was carried by the newspaper Wednesday, Lee said that Taiwan is already an independent country and that all that is required now is for the country to change its official name to reflect reality.

    The U.S. State Department also made it clear Thursday that it does not support Taiwan independence, nor any actions that might represent a unilateral change to the current status quo in the Taiwan Strait, including a change to Taiwan's official name.

(By Oliver Lin and P.C.Tang)

Enditem/Li