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TAIWAN DISMISSES REPORTS ON U.S. WARNING ABOUT SCRAPPING NUC

ROC Central News Agency

2006-02-18 17:45:23

    Taipei, Feb. 18 (CNA) Taiwan has not received any warning from the United States about the consequence if President Chen Shui-bian insists on following through his proposal to scrap the National Unification Council (NUC) and the National Unification Guidelines, a Presidential Office spokesman said Saturday.

    Chen Wen-tsung, director of the Department of Public Affairs of the Presidential Office, was responding to reports by the China Times, a major local newspaper.

    The reports quoted an unidentified ranking official of the Bush administration as warning if President Chen insists on abolishing the NUC and its guidelines, he will have to face the "across-the-board" consequences, including the impact on Taiwan-U.S. relations, cross-strait relations as well as relations between Taiwan and the international community. "We have no knowledge about who the official being quoted by the media is, " Chen Wen-tsung said, adding that even if it is a senior or ranking official, the comments were "just his personal view," and not the official view of the United States.

    He said that since the president proposed the abolition of the NUC on Jan. 29, Taiwan has continued to communicate with the U.S. side to allay its concerns, including with U.S. administration officials, members of Congress, and think tank scholars.

    Michel Lu, a spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), also said Saturday that the ministry has not received any warning message from the U.S. side, dismissing the media reports.

    A high-ranking U.S. State Department official recently reaffirmed that Washington's policy toward Taiwan remains unchanged in the wake of Chen's proposal.

    James Keith, senior advisor for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said that Washington expects Taipei to continue to honor its commitment to maintain the cross-Taiwan Strait status quo and that it will continue to communicate with Taipei to ensure there will be "no surprises" between the two sides.

    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 changes to the cross-strait status quo.

    The NUC is an organ set up by the former Kuomintang administration in 1990 to promote the eventual unification of Taiwan and China and is therefore considered by Beijing as evidence that the island is not moving toward de jure independence, which Beijing has threatened to stop with force.

(By Lilian Wu)

ENDITEM/Li