US Secretary of State Colin Powell plans to tell China that the US sees President Chen Shui-bian's (
Due to visit Beijing next week, Powell also plans to talk about US arms sales to Taiwan and respond to China's recent strident expressions of opposition to the US$18.2 billion arms package that Washington is seeking to sell to Taipei, spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters at his regular daily press briefing.
Powell will visit Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul from Saturday through Tuesday. He will arrive in Beijing next Monday evening and leave the next day.
Referring to Chen's offer to resume talks on the basis of a 1992 meeting in Hong Kong, Boucher called it "a chance to look at what we can all do to promote the idea of dialogue across the Strait."
The Bush administration thought "there were elements in it that were constructive, and we felt that there was an opportunity here to get back to a cross-strait dialogue that should be looked at by all the parties."
Boucher said the US will encourage the Chinese "to see it that way and to look at what they can do to get back to a cross-strait dialogue."
Boucher's comments mark the third time since Chen's speech that a department spokesman has praised the speech and the offer to resume dialogue as "constructive," even after Beijing dismissed the offer as a sham.
The offer is consistent with Washington's new emphasis on promoting the resumption of cross-strait talks since Chen's re-election, and especially since his inauguration address in May.
While Powell confers with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (
Powell is planning to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao (
During his trip, Powell will also hold talks on North Korea and Iraq, and have a chance to meet again with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, whom he met in Washington earlier this month. The questions of a US-Japanese effort to develop a joint missile defense shield, and the shifting US military presence in East Asia will also be discussed.
Another topic of discussion will be preparations for the APEC summit meeting in Chile next month.
When asked whether Powell expected to accomplish anything with the trip, given the nearness of the US presidential election, Boucher said that there was much to be done despite the election.
"There are many things coming up in November, December, January, not to mention next year, that we are going to be working with these countries on," he said.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS