China has warned Taiwan again through the US not to hold a referendum to seek independence, saying it would trigger a crisis in cross-Strait ties, Taiwanese news reports said yesterday.
Two Chinese envoys made the warning when they met US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in Washington DC on Monday, Taiwanese radio and newspapers said, quoting US State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker as saying on Friday.
The two enjoys, Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) and Zhou Mingwei (周明偉), director and deputy director of the Chinese State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, told Armitage that Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) insistence on holding a referendum was a gradual form of seeking independence for Taiwan.
"By doing that, Taiwan will cross the red line of China's tolerance and will cause regional tension. China will not sit idle," Chen and Zhou told Armitage.
Armitage was expected to pass on China's warning to a Taiwanese delegation led by Presidential Secretary General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) yesterday, Taiwanese press said.
This is the second time in two month Chinese officials have warned Taiwan through the US not to hold a referendum on Taiwan's future.
On June 1, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), while attending the G8 summit in Evian, France, told US President George W. Bush that China would not sit idle if Taiwan held a referendum to decide its future.
President Chen plans to hold a referendum on nuclear power and WHO membership in March, the same month Taiwan is scheduled to hold its presidential election. Chen has said he will seek a second four-year term in next year's election.
Meanwhile, Chiou and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (高英茂) gave separate briefings in Washington on Friday to researchers from two US think tanks on Taiwan's proposed referendum.
Although the two briefings at the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, respectively, were closed to the press, some of the US experts on Chinese affairs said afterward the briefings were helpful in easing their misgivings on the referendum issue.
An anonymous source said the Taiwan delegation explained the reasons behind wanting to hold a referendum as well as fielded questions from US experts regarding the referendum process, how the issues were chosen, how the questions on the ballot will be worded, and what effects the referendum will have.
The source said the US experts were not opposed to the idea of a referendum in Taiwan but were concerned about its possible political impact on Washington-Beijing-Taipei relations. They informed Chiou that Washington would not like to see any crisis straining ties at this time and that a referendum in Taiwan could possibly trigger such a crisis.
Also see story:
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
A bipartisan group of US representatives have introduced a draft US-Taiwan Defense Innovation Partnership bill, aimed at accelerating defense technology collaboration between Taiwan and the US in response to ongoing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill was introduced by US representatives Zach Nunn and Jill Tokuda, with US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar and US Representative Ashley Hinson joining as original cosponsors, a news release issued by Tokuda’s office on Thursday said. The draft bill “directs the US Department of Defense to work directly with Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense through their respective
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
RSS