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Timing of Rice's comment inadequate, Schriver says

Former US deputy assistant secretary of state for the East Asia and the Pacific Randall Schriver criticized US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's statement yesterday over her remarks opposing Taiwan's UN membership referendum as an inadequate statement at an inadequate time.

Schriver made the statement at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport prior to his departure for the US after a brief visit in Taiwan.

As the March presidential election approaches, it's a sensitive time and therefore is not a right time for Rice to say what she said, Shriver told reporters.

Schriver said that Rice had not chosen the right place to make her statement, whose contents were also inadequate.

Dan Blumenthal, former senior director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the US Secretary of Defense's Office of International Security Affairs, agreed that Rice's restatement of the US opposition to Taiwan's UN membership referendum was inadequate and that it had been made at an inadequate time.

Meanwhile, four strong supporters of Taiwan in the US House of Representatives endorsed Taiwan's planned referendum on its bid to join the UN after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's remarks against the plebiscite in Beijing.

Rice called the measure irresponsible, evoking a pleased response from Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎).

Responding to Rice's comments, the congressmen, all senior members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, taped statements endorsing the referendum, which are expected to be aired on Taiwanese television stations starting this weekend.

Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) lobbyist Coen Blaauw also expressed dismay over the statements, but said he had heard weeks ago that Rice would make the remarks during the Beijing meetings.

"It is extremely disappointing that the Secretary of State has done this," Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) lobbyist Coen Blaauw said, adding that "most of this was negotiated and orchestrated by her staff prior to the trip."

Beijing did not demand that Rice denounce the referendum during the trip, or make it a condition for accepting the trip, but it was decided in negotiations leading up to the trip that Rice would make the anti-referendum comments as part of their discussions, the Taiwan supporters said.

Blaauw, who will bring the tapes to Taiwan later this week, said that the recordings express Taiwan's right to hold the referendum as a sovereign democracy.

The congressmen say in the tapes that "it is only up to the people of Taiwan to decide whether they want to hold the referendum, not to neighbors, not to China, not to the United States," Blaauw said.

Those making the tapes are "long-time friends of Taiwan who know Taiwan better than everybody else" in Washington, Blaauw said.

Michael Fonte, a US consultant to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), also expressed deep concern over Rice's remarks.

"The democratic process cannot be stopped unless you use some authoritarian strong arm method like the Chinese might do," he said.

Rice's remarks "give the wrong impression to the Chinese," he said.

Two months after she described the referendum as "provocative policy" in a year-end press conference in Washington, Rice repeated the administration's opposition to the referendum during the meeting with Yang and repeated it again to Chinese journalists in a joint press conference afterwards.

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