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U.S. HOPES THERE WILL BE NO MORE SURPRISES FROM TAIWAN

ROC Central News Agency

2006-02-03 12:47:00

    Washington, Feb. 2 (CNA) A high-ranking U.S. State Department official said Thursday that Washington expects Taipei to continue to honor its commitment to maintain the cross-Taiwan Strait status quo and hopes there will be "no surprises" between Washington and Taipei.

    James Keith, senior advisor for the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, made the remarks in the wake of ROC President Chen Shui-bian's proposal over the weekend that the country should seriously consider scrapping the National Unification Council and the National Unification Guidelines, both of which Chen expressly promised in his inaugural speeches of 2000 and 2004 not to do.

    Chen also suggested that the country should consider applying for United Nations membership under the name of Taiwan if the official national title "Republic of China" cannot be used and should draft a new constitution by the end of this year to be put forth for a referendum in 2007.

    Keith reiterated that the United States' "one-China policy" remains unchanged and that Washington does not support Taiwan independence and is opposed to any unilateral change in the cross-strait status quo. "We believe that the president and his government will continue to adhere to the status quo, which is our policy. And we have every expectation that the kind of assurances that we were provided in the past will continue to be honored, " Keith told reporters after a hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

    Keith said Washington and Taipei maintain good communication on this subject and that such communication will continue in the future. "We'll continue to communicate very directly and very closely with Taiwan representatives on our desire to be sure that there will be no surprises between us," Keith added.

    In what was the first response by Washington to President Chen's speech, Acting State Department Spokesman Adam Ereli on Monday called it "a surprise" and claimed that Taiwan's participation in the U.N. under the name of Taiwan would represent a "unilateral change to the status quo."

    Keith, however, declined to elaborate on the point about Taiwan's U.N. participation, saying "I don't believe I said that." He also

declined to comment on whether Chen's speech represented a

violation of his "five noes" commitment. "From our perspective, we know that our policy hasn't changed. We have every expectation that that will be the same in Taiwan as well," he said.

    In his inaugural speeches of 2000 and 2004, Chen pledged not to declare independence for Taiwan, not to change the official name of the country, not to include the "state-to-state" concept on cross-strait relations in the Constitution, not to promote a referendum to change the cross-strait status quo, and not to abolish the National Unification Guidelines and the National Unification Council.

(By Oliver Lin, Jorge Liu and Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM