Taiwan's outgoing deputy representative to the US, Tsai Ming-hsien (蔡明憲), has expressed confidence that President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inaugural address today will convince Washington that his second term will be devoted to attaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Tsai made his comments Tuesday as he prepared to leave Washington for Taipei to take up his new position as vice minister of national defense, after more than two years in his post at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office.
Tsai did not expect Chen to repeat his "five noes" of four years ago, but he said that the "substance" of the "five noes" policy would be part of the inaugural address.
Tsai expressed confidence that despite the problems that have existed recently in US-Taiwan relations, ties will improve during Chen's second term.
Relations with Washington have suffered this year, as the administration of US President George W. Bush expressed serious concerns in the run-up to the March 20 presidential election about the two election-day referendums and later expressed concern over what Chen would say in his inaugural speech.
Since Bush publicly chastised Chen in December over what Bush perceived as Chen's willingness to unilaterally change the cross-strait status quo, the US government has noticeably cooled its previously strong support for Taiwan's actions.
Even Congress' normally effusive support of Taiwan has been muted of late.
However, despite these ups and downs, Tsai said he is hopeful and confident that in the next months and years, relations between the two countries will improve and strengthen.
"I believe that President Chen in his inaugural speech will make the government's intentions and direction as to cross-strait relations clear ? seeking peace and defending the status quo. And President Chen will define the drafting of a new constitution to make it clear that the changes will be in order for the government to serve better, not for a change in sovereignty," Tsai said.
While Tsai said that Chen will "not use exactly the same words" that he used in his "five noes" pledge in his first inaugural address, he also said that "I think in substance he will state that we are not going to change the status quo, but that we will strongly defend the status quo, and that we are not talking about a change in the name of the country, flag or the territory. We will not touch these kinds of matters which may affect the status quo."
Tsai said that US-Taiwan relations "in the main" have been better in the past two or three years than, say, 10 years ago, when Tsai used to visit Washington as a Democratic Progressive Party legislator.
"When I was first elected to the Legislative Yuan, we came here almost every year, but we didn't have a chance to talk to officials in the State Department. Now, when Taiwanese legislators come here, they can see high-ranking officers from State and other departments," he said.
Noting that key US officials have recently called for a resumption of cross-strait dialogue, Tsai said that Chen's government agrees with that idea, but without a "one China" precondition.
"I hope the US will understand that the mainstream of people's aspirations is to keep the status quo without the `one China' principle," Tsai said.
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