US State Department officials reiterated on Tuesday Washington's support for a peaceful resolution of cross-strait disputes in a way that is acceptable to people on both sides of the Strait.
The officials were responding to remarks made by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on Tuesday that only the 23 million people of Taiwan have the right to decide the fate of the country and that the sovereignty of Taiwan belongs to the Taiwanese people and cannot be shared with the 1.3 billion people of China.
Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the US' policy on cross-strait issues is clear and has been stated on a number of occasions.
"We want these issues resolved by peaceful means. Within this context, our policy, which has been stated over and over again, is our commitment to the `one China' policy, our commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act and the three communiques," Hill told reporters after a House of Representatives hearing.
Also commenting on Chen's remarks during a regular press briefing, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Washington's stance on these issues remains unchanged, noting that the department last reiterated this in public with a statement by his deputy Adam Ereli last week.
"We have made no changes to our long-standing policy aimed at promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the region. The United States does not support Taiwan independence and opposes unilateral changes to the status quo by either Taiwan or Beijing," McCormack said.
"We support dialogue in the interest of achieving a peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences in a manner that is acceptable to the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait," he said.
Ereli stated the policy on Jan. 30 in the wake of Chen's proposals that Taiwan should seriously consider scrapping the National Unification Council and the National Unification Guidelines and seeking to join the UN under the name of Taiwan.
Chen also proposed drafting a new constitution by the end of this year.
Ereli called Chen's speech "a surprise" and claimed that Taiwan's participation in the UN under the name of Taiwan would represent a "unilateral change to the status quo."
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