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Scholars comment on U.S. opposition to U.N. bid referendum

ROC Central News Agency

2007-12-22 17:05:06

    Taipei, Dec. 22 (CNA) An Academia Sinica researcher said Saturday that he believes the United States' reiteration of its opposition to Taiwan's planned referendum on applying to join the United Nations under the name Taiwan is aimed at discouraging the Taiwanese people from passing the referendum.

    Washington regards the holding of the referendum as a move that may change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, said Lin Cheng-yi of the Academia Sinica Institute of European and American Studies in a CNA interview.

    On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reiterated in a press conference held in Washington, D.C. the U.S. government's opposition to the referendum.

    Calling the referendum a "provocative policy, " Rice said the referendum unnecessarily raises tensions in the strait and promises no real benefits for the people of Taiwan on the international stage.

    Her statement follows similar remarks made over past few months by several other lower-level U.S. officials, including Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte; Tom Christensen, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs; and Stephen Young, director of the American Institute in Taiwan's Taipei office.

    Lin said he thinks Rice made the statement to comfort China in an attempt to discourage the latter from overreacting to the referendum and from putting forth policies that will change the state quo.

    Criticizing Rice for only highlighting the "provocative" part of the referendum, Lin suggested Washington should more frequently make public its intentions and plans to help Taiwan join international organizations as part of efforts to help realize the Taiwan people's greatest wish.

    Speaking on the current Taiwan-U.S. ties, Lin said that he thinks that relations between the two countries are now at a "cold and deadlocked" stage and that there will be no breakthrough until the summer in 2009, when a new U.S. president will be in office.

    The scholar also said he believes that until next March when the Taiwan people elect a new president, Washington will focus all its attention on issues concerning Taiwan's U.N. bid, cross-strait ties, and Taiwan's upcoming legislative elections slated for Jan. 12.

    Meanwhile, Lai I-chung, an executive member of Taiwan Thinktank, an independent, nonprofit public policy research organization, said he suspects that Washington's use of a high-level official to voice its opposition to the referendum was the result of deal with Beijing in which the latter promised to cooperate on the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons threat.

    Lai told CNA that he believes the word "provocative" in Rice's statement was used to "comfort" China in an attempt to prevent the communist regime from taking more "provocative" action to change the state quo in the strait.

(By Elizabeth Hsu)

ENDITEM/Li