US experts greet Bush's comments with shock

American legal experts described US President George W. Bush's concession to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) yesterday as "disgusting."

President of International League for Human Rights Scott Horton said that he was "shocked" to hear Bush's remarks and he believed Bush did not speak for the majority of the American people whom past surveys have shown to support Taiwan's self-determination and referendum rights.

Horton said that the remarks on opposing any unilateral change to the status quo in the cross-strait relationship were actually a result of the US' keen desire to get China's active support on the North Korea issue.

He pointed out that North Korea grabbed the chance to misbehave with missile tests and development of nuclear weapons while the US military has been overextended with two simultaneous military campaigns, in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As a result, the Bush administration concluded that China's help was needed to resolve the Korean issue, Horton said.

"President Bush made the concession to China because the US is keen to get China involved in the talks with North Korea, and it is disgusting the US made such concessions to an authoritarian state," Horton said.

Horton said that most senior US government officials, however, considered Bush's statement as a concession that would be valued by China and cost them nothing.

"I don't think the Bush administration and its senior foreign policy advisors care even a second about the referendum issue in Taiwan. It's not important to them."

"What is important to them now is to bring China along as a collaborator in the North Korea talks," he said.

Jordan Paust, the University of Houston Law Foundation professor of law, also described Bush's words and the concession they implied as "frightening" and "disgusting."

Paust said that the US walked the same road of self-determination itself, and Taiwanese people should also be allowed to determine their own future.

Meanwhile, Senior Advisor to President Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) said that what Bush meant by "status quo" was not clear and he would not put too much emphasis on it.

"The status quo in the cross-strait relationship is that Taiwan is a sovereign independent nation," Peng said.

Peng said that it was China, by targeting 500 missiles at Taiwan, that was attempting to change the status quo.

Horton, Paust and Peng all responded to Bush's remarks during the International Human Rights Roundtable held by Academia Historica and Preparatory Office of National Human Rights Museum yesterday.

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