Advisers to the Mainland Affairs Council generally agreed yesterday that they expected no joint communique or statement would be issued at the end of the upcoming tete-a-tete between US President George W. Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民).
Bush is scheduled to receive Jiang at his ranch in Texas later today. The summit dominated the council's advisory conference yesterday.
Jan Jyh-horng (詹志宏), director of the MAC's Research and Planning Department, said after the conference that all council consultants agree that Jiang's US trip was basically a working visit and did not expect a joint communique to be issued afterward.
Moreover, Jan said, the council's advisers did not think that Jiang's visit would fundamentally change Washington-Beijing relations.
"In their view, the United States and China will continue to regard each other as potential rivals or even potential enemies," Jan said.
Nevertheless, he added, the advisers believe that Bush and Jiang are likely to reach a consensus or tacit agreement on certain issues.
As to their agenda, Jan said, Jiang is expected to bring up such issues as North Korea's nuclear arms development, anti-terrorism measures, the Middle East situation, the Taiwan Strait issue and the drive to wipe out the so-called "China threat" theory, while Bush will focus his concerns on the war on terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, China's human rights conditions and China's new personnel line-up after the 16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
Jan said the Taiwan issue will inevitably be touched on during the upcoming Bush-Jiang talks.
"As mainland China has come to a better understanding of America's bottom line for cross-strait ties, Jiang is not expected to push too hard on this subject. And Bush is expected to reiterate the US stance on a peaceful solution to cross-strait disputes," he said.
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