The US called on China to reciprocate good will toward Taiwan yesterday and made assurances that it will not pressure the new government to accept Beijing's "one China" principle as a precondition for negotiations.
The Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Raymond Burghardt, praised President Chen Shui-bian's (
"Positive actions should be reciprocated with positive action," Burghardt said at a conference with US-China relations scholars. "This is not the time to adopt an extreme position, nor time to put forward non-negotiable demands," he said.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
China is insisting that Chen must accept Beijing's version of "one China" as a precondition for talks and the opening of the "three links" -- which cover direct communications, commerce and transportation services.
Burghardt stressed that the US will not pressure Taiwan into political talks or be a mediator in cross-strait issues.
"The US is not going to tell Taiwan's new leadership to accept the PRC's terms of negotiations," Burghardt said.
"We will support any arrangement that is voluntarily agreed to by both sides," he said, putting particular emphasis on the word "voluntarily."
He reiterated President Bill Clinton's comments this February that the cross-strait issue must be solved peacefully and "with the assent of the people of Taiwan."
"No one is going to negotiate over the heads of the people of Taiwan," Burghardt said, adding that Beijing should make some effort to understand the political evolution that has taken place here.
"My government has reminded Beijing that the Taiwan public has become a key element in the cross-strait equation," he said.
"[If] the people of Taiwan interpret the actions of Beijing as hostile or bullying, that will make it harder for Taiwan's leaders to get domestic support for his policies on future cross-strait relations," he said.
Burghardt's comments were modeled after an earlier speech delivered last week by Richard Bush, the Chairman and Managing Director of AIT, where the same message was stressed.
Bush urged both sides of the Strait to work towards a future "based on mutual interests" rather than continue to be "haunted by the divisions of the past," and said the Beijing government has much to learn about the complexities of the Taiwan situation.
He stressed that the US would not tell Taiwan to accept the PRC's terms for negotiations because "that would go against our long-standing policy and be antithetical to our values."
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