Sources from the Presidential Office yesterday said key decision-makers in the US have said they understand President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) "one country on each side" of the Strait remarks and also accept Taiwan's explanation of those remarks from Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
"Though various agencies of the US government -- such as the White House, Pentagon and the State Department -- gave disparate responses to the government after the president's remarks on Aug. 3, we now have successfully explained our stance and the US also expresses full understanding of the president's remarks," the source told the Taipei Times.
Responding to charges from opposition lawmakers that the US showed extreme displeasure with President Chen's remarks when Tsai made her trip to Washington, a high-ranking official of the Presidential Official said that wasn't so.
"During her short trip to the US [from Aug. 5 to Aug. 11], Chairwoman Tsai clearly delivered the information about Taiwan's stance, including that the government's cross-strait policy of improving the relationship between two sides remains unchanged and that President Chen's `one country on each side' of the Strait is a description of reality," the source said.
The source said some negative comments from US officials about the president's remarks shouldn't be regarded as "extreme displeasure" from the US government.
"The Presidential Office immediately sent faxes during that weekend to various decision-making bodies in the US administration and explained to them in detail the context, the complete content and relevant background of the president's remarks," the official said. "We wanted to ensure that on Monday morning, when asked by the international media to comment on President's Chen remarks, the US State Department wouldn't make comments that were negative or beyond our expectations."
The official stressed that as things turned out on the Monday morning following Chen's remarks, the US response did not put Taiwan in an unfavorable or disadvantageous position, which made it easier for Taiwan to continue communication with the US.
Officials from the National Security Council also said that immediately after President Chen's Aug. 3 statement, officials from the Presidential Office were busy clarifying the president's statement and explaining the comments to officials of various foreign embassies and representative offices in Taiwan.
"Most importantly, the interactions with our friends also allowed them to further understand China's insistence on using force in the Strait and that the president's remarks were a strategy necessary to defend Taiwan's security and dignity," said an NSC official.
Independent lawmaker Sisy Chen (陳文茜) told reporters yesterday that Tsai had submitted a classified report to President Chen after she returned from the US that indicated the US was extremely displeased with the president's "one country on each side" statement.
"In Tsai's report, the US also warns that the US might take military action against Iraq in the next six months and if President Chen makes any more reckless remarks, he may put Taiwan in a very dangerous situation.
"Moreover, in wake of the president's remarks, Beijing is unlikely to extend any more olive branches to Taipei. Finally, the Bush administration was actually contemplating the possibility of allowing President Chen to make a private visit to the US modeled after former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) visit to the US in 1996, but now such a possibility has become more questionable," she said.
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