The US State Department has denied reports that the Bush administration is preparing a review of its policy toward Taiwan should President Chen Shui-bian (
"Taiwan is a vibrant democracy, and we support the exercise of democratic rights in Taiwan," department spokesmen Adam Ereli told reporters in Washington, denying that any policy review is in the works.
"As far as policy changes in the works, no, nothing is in the works," he said.
Responding to reports that the US is concerned over prospects for Chen's re-election, Ereli said, "This isn't about personalities, it is about policies. So the Taiwan people will have their way. They will elect the leaders that they believe best represent them."
"And we will work with those leaders in partnership for a peaceful resolution of the cross-strait tensions through dialogue," he said.
WAIT AND SEE
Ereli reserved comment about the referendum.
"Let's just wait and see," he said.
He refused to characterize the referendum as a failure of US efforts to block the poll, which Washington has said could affect the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
"I would characterize it as a process that we are working on with both sides to this dispute to ensure that it is resolved through dialogue and not as a result of unilateral action," he said.
Meanwhile, three dozen members of the US House of Representatives have issued an open letter to the people of Taiwan voicing their strong support for the referendum.
Some people view the letter as a rebuke to President George W. Bush, who effectively prevented Congress from supporting the referendum through a formal resolution of Congress.
The 23 million people of Taiwan "have earned the right to decide for yourselves the issues affecting your well-being and security," the letter said.
DEMOCRATIC RIGHT
"You have earned the right to hold exclusive responsibility for determining the future of Taiwan and to exercise democratic processes. This include holding referenda free from intimidation or threat of force from any country, including communist China," it said.
The letter, which was circulated only late last week, gained 36 signatories, nearly twice the number the authors had expected. The letter was written by Representative Peter Deutsch, a Democrat and Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican and sent to their colleagues for their signatures.
While the signature campaign was stopped so the letter could be publicized in time for today's elections, aides to Deutsch say lawmakers are still calling to join the list, and an "addendum" may be issued to add new names.
CHINESE OPPOSITION
The Chinese Embassy in Washington tried hard to squelch the effort, but congressional staffers said that backfired, serving instead to pull in additional signatories.
In Taipei, a half dozen Taiwanese-Americans from New York City in town to vote in the election, joined some 30 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators in a pro-Chen rally in front of the Mitsukoshi department store across from the Taipei Main Train Station.
The group was part of a New York contingent numbering more than 300 who are in the country for the election, according to the group's spokesman, Abraham Hsu.
All of them, he said, are in favor of Chen.
`TAIWAN IS TAIWAN'
"We are here because A-bian is recognized for reform and renewal. The Chinese here, they want to be unified. We don't want that. Taiwan is Taiwan. One China, one Taiwan. That's why we're here," he told the Taipei Times.
The legislators started their rally with a march from the Legislative Yuan immediately after the body failed to approve a measure advancing a constitutional reform proposal when one group of independents balked.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS