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Foreign minister says relations with US are fine

Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) said yesterday that assessments of the US' attitude toward Taiwan should be based on Washington's official statements rather than reports from unnamed sources that only upset public opinion.

Huang said that US-Taiwan relations remain "honest and friendly" and that his ministry had not received any messages from the US and did not have the impression that Washington wanted a reiteration of the "four noes" commitment President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) first made on cross-strait relations in 2000.

The "four noes" refer to Chen's pledge not to declare Taiwan independence, not to change the nation's title to "Taiwan," not to codify the "state-to-state" model of cross-strait relations in the Constitution and not to push for a referendum on independence.

"US-Taiwan relations should be looked at from the basics -- that is, the response from the US' official spokesperson, which is the most representative attitude of the US government. Don't get paranoid by listening to reports from unnamed sources," Huang said during a press briefing.

Huang was responding to a recent edition of the Nelson Report, a private Washington-based newsletter dealing with Asia, which reported that US President George W. Bush was "furious" at Chen's recent comments that it was time to consider abolishing the National Unification Council and unification guidelines.

The local Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday quoted unnamed sources in Washington as saying that the US had formally requested Taipei have officials of at least the rank of foreign minister reiterate the "four noes" and promise to not move ahead with abolishing the council or the guidelines. The report cited an unnamed Taiwanese official as saying that the US was "concerned" about whether Chen was abiding by his "four noes" commitment, but that it did not specifically ask the government to reiterate the "four noes."
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