The US State Department has fallen into line with the White House in urging China to talk directly with President Chen Shui-bian (
Meanwhile, the White House again expressed the hope that the meeting between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
"We urge Beijing to reach out to President Chen and his Cabinet," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Friday.
"Any long-term solution can only be found if Beijing negotiates with the duly elected leadership in Taiwan," he said in response to a question about the department's reaction to the Lien-Hu meeting.
The language echoes that used by White House Spokesman Scott McClellan on Wednesday.
Previously, the department's spokesmen had welcomed and said it supported the visits to China by Lien and other members of the pan-blue alliance, but did not mention Chen or urge China to talk with him.
Following Wednesday's statement by McClellan, the department has apparently added the call for talks with Chen to its official litany on cross-strait dialogue. McClellan, meanwhile, Friday repeated his comments made on Wednesday.
"We believe that it's most important that there be dialogue between Chinese leaders and the elected representatives of the government of Taiwan," he told his daily press briefing.
"And so we would hope that this would be a sign that China will continue to move forward on a dialogue with President Chen and members of his government, which is the duly elected government in Taiwan," he said.
He also seemed to support the Lien visit, saying, "We welcome dialogue between China and leaders in Taiwan."
Asked about Beijing's refusal so far to talk with Chen, McClellan added, "we'll continue working with the parties in the region and continue to encourage them to engage in dialogue to promote peace and stability in the region."
For his part, Ereli declined repeatedly to comment on the specific points raised in the Lien-Hu meeting, saying only that the State Department sees Lien's trip in the "broad context" that "dialogue is in the interests of both sides to achieve a peaceful resolution of their differences in a manner that is acceptable to both."
He also declined to get drawn into a discussion of Lien's motives in his trip, and whether Lien's intention was to advance peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues or to divide Taiwan politically and undercut Chen.
Asked directly whether China's reaching out to the Taiwan opposition is a matter of concern for Washington, Ereli said:
"It's a process that we can support, it's a process that we can encourage, and it's a process that we can try to help the sides work toward."
"But it clearly requires a will and initiative and steps that they take themselves. It is not something that we can control or force. But we can certainly lend our influence and our voice to help move things in that direction, which we are doing," he said.
Ereli dodged a question of whether Washington supports the resumption of cross-strait talks on the basis of the "1992 consensus," which Hu and Lien agreed should be the case.
In Taipei, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) urged the Chinese government to take a pragmatic approach in dealing with the Taiwanese government.
Taking note of US officials' remarks in the wake of Lien's meeting with Hu, Presidential Office Spokesman Chen Wen-tsung (
"We have stressed several times that cross-strait problems can be resolved only through government-to-government dialogue and consultation," the spokesman said. "The Beijing authorities should deal with the DPP government pragmatically."
The Presidential Office yesterday also called on Beijing to cease harboring its "United Front" (
The "United Front" refers to tactics and efforts employed by Beijing aimed at extending its influence in Taiwan to aid unification.
Additional reporting by Huang Tai-lin
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS