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WASHINGTON TAKES CHEN'S 'FIVE NOES' PLEDGES SERIOUSLY: U.S. OFFICIAL

ROC Central News Agency

2007-03-28 12:39:45

    Washington, March 27 (CNA) The United States takes seriously ROC President Chen Shui-bian's commitments to U.S. President George W. Bush not to move in the direction of unilateral changes to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan's status, Thomas Christensen, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said Tuesday.

    Speaking at a U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing, Christensen said that Washington takes seriously Chen's commitments made in his two inaugural speeches that the U.S. administration believes are stabilizing commitments. "We believe that that's a sign of Chen's leadership, and we believe that the situation across the Taiwan Strait has been stable because the president and the Bush administration at large has been very firm and very consistent in stating our full one China policy, which calls for peaceful resolution across the Taiwan Strait and says that we do not support Taiwan independence; that we oppose unilateral changes to the status quo; and we expect the two sides to resolve their differences in a peaceful manner," Christensen said.

    Christensen noted that the United States expects President Chen to abide by these pledges, adding that it considers the "four wishes" remarks concerning Taiwan independence that President Chen spelled out earlier this year to be "unhelpful and inconsistent" with those earlier pledges. "We look to him to abide by those commitments that he's made because we believe they're a source for stability in cross-strait relations," Christensen further said.

    Meanwhile, Christensen stressed that the Bush administration's cross-strait policy has remained unchanged from those of the previous U.S. administrations.

    On the Taiwan issue, he continued, "I'll say to you what I've said to so many others: Taiwan has no better friend than the United States. It has no better friend than the Bush administration. And we pay very careful attention to Taiwan's security needs. We take extremely seriously, and we work to fulfill our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act by offering military items of a defensive nature to Taiwan and also by maintaining our own capabilities in the region."

    Meanwhile, Christensen said that the U.S. government hopes Taiwan considers its self-defense seriously and hopes that various Taiwanese elites do not play political football with Taiwan's security.

    Noting that for political reasons on the island, Taiwan has not procured some of the key items in the defense package that President Bush offered to sell to Taiwan in April 2001, Christensen said "this is a core interest of the United States, and we let the Taiwan public know that -- we take that extremely seriously." "Taiwan should come up with a long-term plan for its security that is a bit removed from the political to and fro on the island, " he said.

(By Jorge Liu, Chiehyu Lin and Deborah Kuo)

ENDITEM/Li