Nervously scrutinizing every word by George W. Bush, Taiwan put on a brave face and hailed yesterday an assurance by the US president to uphold US commitments to Taiwan.
"President Bush's remarks are significant, indicating the United States' firm support for democratic Taiwan," Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
"The United States not only sees Taiwan as a good friend but also cherishes Taiwan's democratic achievements and pays close attention to security in the Taiwan Strait. We are deeply confident of Taiwan-US relations," Chien said.
Taiwanese are watching closely Bush's Feb. 21 to Feb. 22 visit to China, which includes a summit meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin (
A special task force, set up since last week, has been working around the clock to monitor Bush's visit.
The government has gone out of its way to try to assure the nation's 23 million people there would not be any significant change to US policy coming from Bush's visit to China.
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