The US has expressed its views on the situation between China and Taiwan many times and will not use the words of someone else to describe its views, a spokesman for the US State Department said on Tuesday.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher made the remarks in a routine briefing when he was asked about a statement by Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released that day.
The statement was a follow-up to earlier remarks by Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo (
Faced with criticism by Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) on Monday, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on Tuesday saying that "this is not the first time Singapore has stated its concerns about Taiwan. Many other countries also believe that Taiwan is pursuing a damaging course toward independence."
Asked if the US shares that concern, Boucher said that he is not going to try to "characterize our views in terms of what somebody else said about somebody else."
Boucher said that he did not know "if that has reference to us or not. I'd leave it to the Singporeans to explain it."
He said that the US' views on cross-strait relations "have been expressed many times. I'll stick with what we said rather than adopt somebody else's words."
The US stance on cross-strait issues is based on its three communiques with China and the Taiwan Relations Act, and it opposes any side taking action to unilaterally change the status quo.
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