US, China maintain Taiwan policy

Outgoing US President Bill Clinton held his last summit with Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) yesterday on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit, with both sides reiterating their main tenets of policy towards Taiwan.

Jiang reiterated the "one China" principle regarding the question of Taiwan, adding that "China is willing to begin any cross-strait consultations on an equal footing on whatever issues" as long as Taiwan accepts that principle, China's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhu Bangzao (朱邦造) said in a press conference yesterday evening.

Zhu also quoted Clinton as saying that the US will continue to pursue its "one China" policy. In an earlier meeting with the Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen (錢其琛), US National Security Council Adviser Sandy Berger told Chinese officials that the US would adhere to the "one China" principle whoever succeeds Clinton as the next US president.

As Clinton would leave his office in two months, China admitted that the 35-minute talk only "touched upon some big issues without elaborating on them," Zhu said.

China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan (唐家璇) described the atmosphere of the meeting as "emotional" as both reviewed the US-Sino relations during the past eight years.

There have been 10 summits during the past eight years. The first Clinton-Jiang summit was held in 1993 as the sideline of the APEC summit, which critics dubbed as "a turning point for the two countries" as it was the highest-level contact between them since the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

Following the 1996 missile crisis across the Taiwan Strait that shattered the US-China relations, both leaders held another summit as the sideline of the 1996 APEC summit in Manila.

Critics also regarded the Clinton-Jiang summit last year during the Auckland APEC summit as conducive to improving bilateral ties following NATO's bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo crisis.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's representative to the APEC summit had a brief exchange with Jiang during yesterday's informal leaders' meeting.

"I expressed our wish to see a smooth and successful APEC summit in China next year, and he [Jiang] welcomed us to attend the meeting to be held in Shanghai next year," Taiwan's Governor of Central Bank of China Perng Fai-nan (彭懷南) told reporters yesterday.

When asked if China has had any concrete measures to deal with Taiwan's participation in next year's APEC meeting in China, Tang said the issue "shouldn't be a problem" as established practices under APEC's umbrella have already become the yardstick to deal with Taiwan's participation in APEC.

Taiwan and China entered into APEC in 1991, with the condition that Taiwan is referred to as "Chinese Taipei" and Taiwan's foreign minister is blocked from any APEC meetings.