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No US support for UN bid, AIT director says

American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Stephen Young said yesterday the US government does not support Taiwan's UN membership bid.

"The US government's stance is clear," he said. "We do not support it because it is unnecessary."

Young made the remarks in Mandarin before attending a Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation event in Taipei yesterday morning.

Asked whether he supported the government's torch relay in support of the UN membership campaign using the name "Taiwan," Young skirted the question by saying he does not jog anymore because he has week knees and that he only climbs Taipei 101 during special events.

In response, Presidential Office spokesman David Lee (李南陽) said that joining the UN using the name "Taiwan" reflects public opinion and is the right of Taiwanese.

Lee said the administration would continue to communicate with the US government through various channels to facilitate Washington's understanding of the initiative.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said he respected Young's view.

"[Stephen Young] is a representative of a foreign country. We respect him," Hsieh said when asked for comment.

What Young said was "not news" because the US government has been saying the same thing for the past few months, Hsieh said.

"Young was just expressing the US position, though some may have played up his words, [perhaps] because they coincided with the torch relay," Hsieh said.

Hsieh said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had never respected Young, pointing to their reaction to his calling for the passage of a budget request for an arms procurement package from the US.

"Young urged us to pass the budget, but the KMT never listened to him. Now the KMT refer to Young's comments [yesterday] as an imperial edict. It's all about politics," Hsieh said.

Asked to comment on Young's remarks, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said the country's exclusion from the UN was unfair and that seeking to "return" to the UN was the collective goal of the majority of Taiwanese.

"The KMT proposal, which says the country should strive to return to the UN in a flexible and respectful manner, has a better chance of success" than the DPP bid, Ma said.

Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
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