The US State Department said on Tuesday that the US supports Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (
The remark by spokesman Adam Ereli during his regular daily press briefing was the strongest endorsement so far of the Lien trip by the Bush administration, which is believed to have pressured President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in recent weeks to accept contact between the pan-blue camp and leaders in Beijing.
"We believe that steps that increase dialogue, support dialogue, support a peaceful resolution of cross-strait tensions are to be supported, to be welcomed," Ereli said.
"And that's the case with this latest visit. And we support the expansion of those kinds of contacts," he said.
Earlier, department statements said the US "welcomed" pan-blue contacts with China, but this was the first time a spokesman had expressed US "support" for those efforts.
Ereli refused to comment on Chen's warning to Lien not to engage in state-to-state style negotiations during his trip, or whether the US was concerned that the KMT might act to undermine US policy.
"I don't have any comment to share with you on those discussions," he said.
Ereli also said he did not have enough information to say whether Taiwan or the Lien visit would come up in discussions in Beijing between incoming Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Christopher Hill and Chinese leaders.
Hill arrived in Beijing less than a week after he formally assumed the assistant secretary post, replacing James Kelly who left the department for the private sector earlier in the year.
Hill met Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei (
Hill was to leave for Tokyo yesterday for further discussions on North Korea.
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