• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

U.S. URGED TO MAINTAIN 'STRATEGIC AMBIGUITY' POLICY ON TAIWAN ISSUE

ROC Central News Agency

2007-06-06 12:19:51

    Washington, June 5 (CNA) The United States should continue its policy of "strategic ambiguity" on the Taiwan issue, former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker said Tuesday.

    Baker noted that since the U.S. government switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, Washington has adopted "strategic ambiguity" as its guiding principle in dealing with Taiwan.

    Under this policy, Washington will not specify what action it will take on the question of China's possible use of force against Taiwan, while making clear to both sides of the Taiwan Strait that the United States expects a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue, Baker said.

    According to Baker, the Taiwan issue will find its own resolution eventually, and what the United States needs to do is to maintain the cross-strait status quo.

    Baker reasoned that as long as the trade and business activities between Taiwan and China continue, cross-strait relations will develop in a positive direction and reach a resolution in the end.

    Baker, who served as secretary of state between 1989 and 1992 in the administration of then U.S. President George Bush, made the remarks in response to a question from a reporter, after delivering a speech titled "The Future of Sino-American Relations" during a U.S.-China Business Council luncheon in Washington, D.C.

    Baker's remarks came in the wake of observations made by many American think tanks that the cross-strait policy of the administration of President George W. Bush is turning from one of "strategic ambiguity" to one of "strategic clarity."

    In a report titled "U.S.-China Relations: An Affirmative Agenda, A Responsible Course" released in April, the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations suggested that the United States continue the policies of "dual restraint" and "dual assurance" toward Taiwan.

    These mean "deterring Chinese aggression and opposing Taiwan's steps toward independence while at the same time assuring China that the United States does not seek to perpetuate Taiwan's separation from the mainland and assuring Taiwan that the United States does not seek to pressure it into negotiating a final resolution, " according to the report.

    Meanwhile, in an annual report on China's military power published in May, the U.S. Defense Department pointed out that although the principal focus of China's military modernization in the near term appears to be preparing for potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait, Beijing is increasingly surveying the strategic landscape beyond Taiwan.

(By Chiehyu Lin and Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/Li