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NO REQUEST FROM U.S. FOR PRESIDENT TO REAFFIRM 'FIVE NOES': MOFA

ROC Central News Agency

2006-02-08 14:52:11

    Taipei, Feb. 8 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Wednesday that it has not received a request from the United States that President Chen Shui-bian reaffirm his "five noes" pledge.

    MOFA spokesman Michel Lu was responding to news reports that the Bush administration hopes President Chen will reaffirm his pledge in the wake of his proposal that Taiwan should seriously consider scrapping the National Unification Council and the National Unification Guidelines.

    Otherwise, the reports quoted unnamed U.S. sources as saying, U.S. President George W. Bush will not rule out the possibility of openly criticizing President Chen when Chinese President Hu Jintao visits the United States in April.

    Lu said that Taiwan has not received any such message during its communications with Washington and that Taiwan will continue to step up communications to allay U.S. concerns about President Chen's remarks.

    Another MOFA official, who asked to remain anonymous, said that President Chen has clearly restated the "five noes" pledge several times and that the ministry has not received a clear message that the U.S. has made such a request. President Chen has no need to reaffirm the pledge, he added. "There is no need to worry about the talks between Bush and Hu during their meeting in April" the official said, adding that if Taiwan's communications with the U.S. are good, then "we don't have to worry about the meeting."

    The ministry has communicated with the U.S. through the ROC representative office in Washington, D.C. as well as the American Institute in Taiwan, which represents U.S. interests in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties between the two countries, over President Chen's remarks.

    There is a perception gap between the U.S. and Taiwan, the official noted, but the gap is not as serious as the news reports have stated and there is no "crisis of confidence."

    Minister of Foreign Affairs Huang Chih-fang met with Dana Shell Smith, acting AIT director, on Tuesday for the third time since President Chen's Jan. 29 proposal, explaining that the proposal came against the backdrop of worries that the cross-strait balance might have tilted in China's favor following Beijing's enactment of an anti-secession law in March 2005 and its wooing of Taiwan opposition leaders, and that "Taiwan has no intention to change the cross-Taiwan Strait status quo."

    President Chen made the "five noes" pledge in his 2000 inaugural speech and again in 2004 that if Beijing has no intention of using force against Taiwan, Taiwan will not declare independence, not change its formal name, not include the "special state-to-state" cross-Taiwan Strait relations into the Constitution, not promote a referendum to change the status quo, and not abolish the National Unification Council (NUC) and the National Unification Guidelines.

    The NUC, set up more than a decade ago by the former Kuomintang administration, advocates the eventual unification of Taiwan and China. Therefore, China has viewed the proposal to scrap the NUC as a move toward de jure Taiwan independence, which Beijing has threatened to stop by force.

(By Lilian Wu)

enditem/Li