Taiwan relieved Xi-Obama summit not affecting its interest
ROC Central News Agency
2013/06/09 22:37:32
Taipei, June 9 (CNA) Taiwan was relieved Sunday to find that while China's stance on issues related to the island remains unchanged, the United States remains firm on its commitment to help Taiwan defend itself.
A Taiwanese official said, after Chinese President Xi Jinping asked the United States to stop selling arms to Taiwan, that Xi's request represented China's consistent stance on Taiwan and was nothing new.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Anna Kao said U.S. President Barack Obama made it clear to Xi that the U.S.'s commitment to Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), including helping address Taiwan's defense needs, remained unchanged.
The TRA, enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1979 when Washington and Taipei severed diplomatic ties, commits the U.S. to providing Taiwan with defensive arms.
Obama also stressed that Washington supported improving Taipei-Beijing ties and expected cross-Taiwan Strait relations to make progress in a way that is acceptable to both sides, Kao said.
Taiwan's Foreign Ministry issued a statement welcoming Obama's remarks regarding Taiwan. Taiwan-U.S. relations will continue to move forward on a 'low-profile, zero-surprise' basis, the statement added.
In 1982, then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan offered Taiwan six assurances, including that the U.S. will not set a date for termination of arms sales to Taiwan; will not alter the terms of the TRA; and will not consult with China in advance before making decisions about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
Obama and Xi held a two-day meeting in California Friday and Saturday, the first encounter between the leaders of the two countries since Xi became president in March.
Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said Xi told Obama that Beijing hopes Washington will commit itself to the 'one-China' principle, follow the three communiques on which the two sides' ties are based and stop arms sales to Taiwan.
Kao said the U.S. will brief Taiwan on the meeting but declined to say when that would happen.
Local scholars said Xi's call for the United States to end arm sales to Taiwan is not expected to affect Taiwan-U.S. relations.
Xi's call had 'more rhetoric than substance' and was even contradictory, said Chen I-hsin, a professor in Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of the Americas.
Xi asked Obama to maintain the U.S.'s 'one-China' principle based on the three communiques that the U.S signed with China in 1972, 1979 and 1982.
But China's increasing deployment of missiles targeted at Taiwan contradicts the communiques, which call for 'a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question' and the two sides to 'reduce the danger of international military conflict,' Chen said.
Xi on one hand demanded that the U.S. stop arms sales to Taiwan, but China continues to increase its military superiority over Taiwan on the other with the ambition of taking over the island, Chen said.
The professor suggested that the Chinese leader's remarks were so full of contradictions that they could even affect China-U.S. relations.
Yen Chen-shen, a research fellow at National Chengchi University's Institute of International Relations, said the U.S. and China are not expected to find common ground on the Taiwan issue, because Washington is more concerned about whether Beijing will become a problem in issues related to Japan and North Korea.
Yen said Xi attempted to put China's national power on an equal footing with that of the U.S. by taking an aggressive stance in addressing China's sovereignty issues.
He urged Taiwanese authorities to watch closely if China will persuade the U.S., whether publicly or privately, into pushing Taiwan into talks with Beijing on political issues.
Stephen Chen, who served as Taiwan's de factor ambassador to the U.S. from 1998-2000, said he did not see new ideas on Taiwan arise during Obama's meeting with Xi, and he did not expect the summit to affect U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
Chen Chien-jen, who succeeded Stephen Chen as Taiwan's top representative in the U.S., said the two leaders only reiterated their respective stances on the Taiwan issue but did not seek to find common ground.
That approach signaled that Taiwan was not the most pressing issue on the agenda, and the meeting did not have a direct influence on Taiwan, Chen Chien-jen said.
Another National Chengchi University professor said the leaders of the U.S. and China hoped to build a personal friendship at their special summit in order to achieve a broader partnership through mutual understandings on a comprehensive range of issues.
Tung Chen-yuan, a former deputy chief at the Mainland Affairs Council -- Taiwan's China-policy planning agency -- predicted that there will be many more meetings between Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping like the one that took place this weekend in California.
'The United States and China have actually had a symbiotic relationship for a long time,' Tung said.
If the United States wants its economy to grow faster, it will definitely need the help of China, he said.
On the other hand, China needs help from the United States in its effort to transform its model of economic development, such as increasing domestic demand and developing the service industry, Tung said.
Externally, he said, China needs a stable relationship with the United States and internally, China would like to acquire know-how either through the easing of U.S. export restrictions or allowing Chinese companies to invest in more American companies.
If the United States allows clean energy technology to be exported to China, Tung said, it will be very useful as that would help improve energy efficiency and cut pollution at the same time.
(By Maubo Chang, Elaine Hou, Jamie Wang and Jay Chen)
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