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Yu Shyi-kun meets with US officials

Barbara Schrage, acting chairwoman of the American Institute in Taiwan, greets Premier Yu Shyi-kun at New York's Kennedy airport yesterday. PHOTO: CNA

The cross-strait political situation is very delicate and the US should stay out of it, a US congressman said yesterday in response to President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) recent comments that there is one country on either side of the Taiwan Strait.

"I think we have to be very careful in how we handle this situation, which is very delicate," US Representative Charles Rangel said yesterday morning.

Rangel was one of several US representatives and former government officials who attended a closed-door breakfast meeting with Premier Yu Shyi-kun at the premier's hotel in downtown Manhattan yesterday.

Yu, who arrived in New York City at 11pm on Monday, is having a two-day stopover there en route to Haiti, the first leg of his 11-day trip to four of Taiwan's diplomatic allies.

Welcoming Yu at his hotel Monday night were Barbara Schrage, acting director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in Washington and 20 Taiwanese-American community leaders.

During the two-day stopover, Yu will keep his trip private because it is the long-standing policy of the US not to allow the top five Taiwanese officials -- the president, vice president, pre-mier, foreign minister and the defense minister -- to make official visits.

Rangel dismissed talk that current tensions in the Strait are similar to 1999, when then president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said relations with China were "special state-to-state" in nature.

"There's some concern here, but it's a very delicate situation," he said.

When asked how the US government would react to Chen's announcement, Rangel said: "It's not for us to react. It's for Taiwan and the People's Republic of China to react. It's a matter that they should be able to settle."

When asked for his personal take on Chen's and Lee's remarks, Rangel said the matter was simple.

"[There] is one China. That's the only interpretation," he said.

"The other situation is that Taiwan is America's friend. There's democracy in the area. We have the Taiwan Relations Act that is very clear that America will not allow an aggressive war-like act against Taiwan," he said.

In addition to Rangel, other US representatives and former government officials attending the meeting included William Cohen, former defense secretary, and Rupert Hammod-Chambers, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce.

Cohen avoided the media when he entered the hotel through a side entrance. Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez failed to show up because of a busy schedule.

Following the breakfast meeting, Yu had another closed-door meeting with Representatives Peter King, Ben Gilman and Major Owens.

King, a Republican, serves on the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee and the International Relations Committee.

In addition to serving on the Republican Policy Committee, Gilman is the chairman of a new subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia and was appointed to a new subcommittee on Europe.

Owens is a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee. He also serves on the Government Reform Committee and the Subcommittee for Workforce Protections.

Yu was also scheduled yesterday to meet privately with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and visit "Ground Zero," the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Today, Yu has another closed-door breakfast meeting scheduled with scholars from US think tanks, including Richard Bush, former head of the AIT in Washington.

Yu is scheduled to leave for Haiti at 11:25am today and arrive at 2pm.
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