Government officials strongly denied reports yesterday claiming the US had requested Taiwan to retract its "two-states" redefinition of relations with China.
The United Evening News quoted unnamed high-level sources as claiming that when Premier Vincent Siew (
The report comes just days before a meeting between US President Bill Clinton and his Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin (
"The report is totally unfounded, and it is not based on any facts," said Chen Chien-jen (
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also dismissed the reports.
Spokesman Henry Chen (
Siew made a stopover in New York on his way back from attending the inauguration of Panama's president Mireya Moscoso last week.
Speculation that the AIT chairman has dropped a bombshell on Taiwan's mainland policy arose when Siew left the meeting with Bush looking unusually dour instead of sporting his trademark Cheshire cat smile.
However, AIT spokeswoman Susan Stahl said she had no information indicating Bush made such statements during the meeting with Siew.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin (
Jiang demanded President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) retract his July 9 declaration that Taiwan's relations with China are on a "special state-to-state" basis, saying "this is something that the 1.2 billion Chinese people cannot accept."
Wang was scheduled to visit Taiwan in the fall but "all of a sudden, Lee dished out the so-called `two-states' theory," Jiang said.
Jiang also seized the occasion to reaffirm China's willingness to use force to settle the "Taiwan question" and criticized the US for supplying arms to Taiwan.
Even before Jiang again made clear China's willingness to use force against Taiwan, US congressman Benjamin Gilman had urged President Clinton on Tuesday to press Jiang to renounce the use of force against Taiwan when the two meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit this week.
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