As China ratchets up its rhetoric over President Chen Shui-bian's (
"We understand their interest in pursuing a referendum toward a new constitution," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, Randall Schriver, told the Washington press corps on Thursday.
At the same time, Washington has been clear that it does not support Taiwan's independence.
"So, if any of these efforts touch on Taiwan's status in a way that [moves toward independence], we're not going to be supportive of that," he said.
Schriver stated, however, "whether to change the constitution is really Taiwanese domestic politics. We don't want to overly influence that," he said.
"So, it is really a matter of whether these efforts [to write a new constitution] are going to spill into those areas or lead us in that direction [toward independence]. If that's the case, the United States will not support it," Schriver said.
The State Department official's comments were believed to be the first time a senior US official has commented on the constitution itself. Most previous comments have focused on the plan for a referendum, which Washington officials have feared would deal with independence and independence-related issues, such as a change in the official name from the Republic of China.
It is certainly the first time that an administration official has said Washington would look acceptingly at a new constitution.
On the apparent rising verbal cross-strait tensions over the past week, Schriver said that "the volume is up a little bit, the rhetoric is up."
"We take that to mean that there are serious concerns in Beijing, and we listen to those, we acknowledge those," he said.
He confirmed that the issue was raised this week when his boss, Assistant Secretary James Kelly, visited Beijing and talked with senior Chinese foreign policy officials.
"He had an opportunity to reiterate our policy that our one-China policy is based on the three communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act, our non-support for Taiwanese independence, our opposition to the use of force.
"And he addressed some of our views about the ongoing [Taiwanese presidential] election campaign, that we support Taiwan's democracy, we support the electoral process, but we are neutral, we do not favor one candidate or another, nor are we in any way involved in shaping campaign policies or positions.
"These are the domestic politics of Taiwan, and the campaigns are unfolding as they see fit," Schriver said.
Regarding his statement about shaping campaign policies, Schriver noted that China has indicated it feels that the US has a hand in Taiwan's election campaigns.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods