China's top Taiwan-relations policymaker met with senior White House officials in Washington for more than a half hour on Tuesday for discussions on Beijing's proposed anti-secession legislation and other Taiwan issues at a time of serious strains in US-Taiwan relations.
Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), the director of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, held a meeting with Stephen Hadley, whom US President George W. President Bush recently appointed as his national security advisor to replace Condoleezza Rice, Bush's nominee for secretary of state.
Also attending the meeting in the White House complex was Michael Green, the senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council.
Neither the White House nor the Chinese embassy would give details of the discussion,although the State Department Monday said that a main topic of discussion during Chen's Washington visit would be the planned anti-secession law, which potentially mandates a Chinese attack on Taiwan if Beijing is unhappy with Taiwan's moves toward independence.
The standing committee of China's National People's Congress last week agreed to put the proposed law on the agenda for the NPC's plenary session in March.
The White House meeting kicked off the visit for Chen, who arrived earlier in the day, according to a Chinese embassy spokesman.
Chen is also scheduled to meet with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage during the visit. The State Department on Monday said the meeting was scheduled for today, but some reports say that the meeting was pushed up to yesterday.
Congressional staffers were also unable to add credence to earlier reports in Chinese-language newspapers that Chen would meet members of Congress during the trip.
Congress convened on Tuesday after a year-end holiday break, but there will be too much happening during the early days of the new session to accommodate a meeting with the Chinese, congressional staffers say.
Chen's visit is the first high-level trip to Washington by Chinese leaders since Taiwan held its legislative elections last month, in which the Democratic Progressive Party suffered a setback by failing in its goal of gaining a majority of seats for the pan-green alliance in the legislature.
Chen's meeting with Armitage will mark a return engagement of a meeting the two officials held in China last January in which Armitage reportedly expressed serious reservations over President Chen Shui-bian's(
During that meeting, and a later one the two men held in Washington, Chen reportedly urged Armitage to take firm steps to derail the planned referendum.
Since then, Armitage has become one of the toughest Bush administration critics of Chen Shui-bian and Taiwan. He recently raised hackles in Taipei and Washington by stating that the US agrees that Taiwan is part of China, a remark that calls into question basic US policy on the issue since 1972.
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
’DISTORTION’: Beijing’s assertion that the US agreed with its position on Taiwan is a recurring tactic it uses to falsely reinforce its sovereignty claims, MOFA said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said Chinese state media deliberately distorted Taiwan’s sovereign status, following reports that US President Donald Trump agreed to uphold the “one China” policy in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). During the more than one-hour-long call, Xi urged Trump to retreat from trade measures that roiled the global economy and cautioned him against threatening steps on Taiwan, a Chinese government summary of the call said. China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying that the US should handle the Taiwan issue cautiously and avoid the two countries being drawn into dangerous
RSS