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U.S. CONTINUES TO URGE TAIWAN TO MAINTAIN CROSS-STRAIT STATUS QUO

ROC Central News Agency

2006-02-23 12:27:09

    Washington, Feb. 22 (CNA) The United States reiterated Wednesday its opposition to any steps by either Taiwan or China that raise cross-Taiwan Strait tensions or change the status quo.

    Washington believes that direct dialogue between authorities in Beijing and the elected leadership in Taipei is the best way to resolve questions in cross-strait relations, according to J. Adam Ereli, deputy spokesman of the U.S. State Department. "We do not support Taiwan independence and we oppose steps by either side that raise tensions or alter the status quo as we define it," Ereli said.

    Ereli was explaining the U.S. position on whether Taiwan's National Unification Council (NUC) and National Unification Guidelines should be abolished.

    ROC President Chen Shui-bian first proposed Jan. 29 that the country should seriously consider scrapping the NUC and its policy guidelines, which were established by the former Kuomintang government in 1990 and 1991, respectively, and are symbolic of Taiwan's objective of unifying with China.

    In what has widely been interpreted as an indication that the president is determined to go ahead with the plan, Chen said Wednesday that the NUC and the guidelines should be abolished because they are "absurd products of an absurd era" that violate the democratic principle of sovereignty which lies with the people.

    Chen said the existence of the council and guidelines has deprived the people of Taiwan of the right to have the final say in the direction of cross-strait relations and has ruled out the possibility of independence as an option for Taiwan.

    News reports have said that Washington sent two officials -- one from the White House and the other from the State Department -- to Taiwan last week to try to persuade Chen to drop the idea but that Chen showed no intention of changing his mind.

    On these reports, Ereli said: "I don't have that level of detail of what our diplomatic contacts with officials in Taiwan has been."

    However, he added that the United States has made clear to Taiwan Washington's long-standing policy regarding cross-strait issues, both in private and on public occasions. "Without getting into specifics on any one proposal or any one idea, we are -- we have and we continue to make clear to the authorities in Taipei that we oppose steps by either side that raise tensions or that alter the status quo," he said. "It's a position that we reiterate very strenuously and consistently in private and -- as I'm now doing, in public, " he continued.

    Meanwhile, he said the issue of Taiwan was raised during Tuesday's meeting between U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and that Zoellick reiterated Washington's long-standing positions on that issue.

(By Oliver Lin and Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/Li