The US and Japan expressed concerns that China's "anti-secession" law would "raise tensions" and "have a negative impact" on peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and reiterated that the "Taiwan problem" should be solved through a peaceful resolution.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told ABC Television on Sunday that the legislation "clearly raises tensions," and that "it's not necessary or a good thing to raise tensions."
Rice, who will travel to six Asian countries, including China, this week, said Washington has concerns about the Chinese military buildup.
She said it is too early to make conclusions about what kind of power China is going to be in international affairs, and that what the US should do is engage in policies that strengthen the chances that China will be "a constructive force, not a destructive force."
There should be no effort on either side of the Taiwan Strait to unilaterally change the status quo, Rice said.
"We have concerns about the cross-straits tensions between China and Taiwan. China's economy is integrating into the international economy; it needs to do that in a rules-based way, according to the WTO obligations that China undertook," she said.
"And of course the United States has strong alliances in the region, with Japan, with South Korea, that gives a sense of stability to this region in a military sense, in a political sense, in an economic sense," Rice added.
After China passed the law yesterday morning, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Japan wanted a peaceful solution to issues related to Taiwan.
"We are concerned from the standpoint that it may have a negative impact ... on peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and on relations between [China and Taiwan]," Hosoda told reporters.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters that he would like China and Taiwan to "mutually resolve things peacefully so there is no negative impact."
In a joint declaration last month, Japan and the US described peace in the Taiwan Strait as their "common security concern."
The European Economic and Trade Office in Taipei declined to comment on the "anti-secession" law yesterday, saying the EU would express its opinion on the issue in the due course.
Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday his country would not necessarily back the US if it becomes involved in a military conflict between China and Taiwan.
Downer said if Washington became involved in a war between China and Taiwan, the ANZUS treaty between Australia and the US could be invoked.
Under the pact, Australia and the US are obliged to consult if either is attacked by a third country in the Pacific region.
"We would be bound to consult with the Americans ... But that's a very different thing from saying we would make a decision to go to war," Downer said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
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