Thu, Nov 27, 2003 page1

• No change in US policy, envoy says

  • By Charles Snyder / STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
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  US President George W. Bush's administration has a good understanding of what President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) intends to accomplish in his plans for a referendum and a new constitution, and has not changed its favorable policy toward Taiwan ahead of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's (溫家寶) visit to Washington next month, Taiwan's top diplomat in Washington said on Tuesday.

  Chen Chien-jen (程建人), head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Relations Office, made the comment at a press conference for Taiwan's Washington press corps. The press conference came a day after Beijing officially announced Wen's visit.

  The premier is expected to arrive in the US on Dec. 7 for a four-day trip during which he will meet Bush and other top officials.

  Secretary of State Colin Powell, meanwhile, confirmed speculation that Taiwan is likely to be a major topic of conversation during the Wen visit.

  "You can be absolutely sure that we will be prepared to discuss Taiwan," he told reporters at the State Department.

  "As we always do, we reaffirm to our Chinese guests that our `one China' policy remains our policy, founded on the three communiques, as well as the Taiwan Relations Act. And we do not support independence for Taiwan," he said.

  "And that's the very clear US policy, which we look forward to reaffirming again when Mr. Wen arrives,"Powell said.

  Chen Chien-jen told reporters that he thinks the Bush administration "understands us better than before. When we first talked about a referendum and a new constitution, some of them did express concerns. Now, I thing they understand what we meant, or what we mean now."

  While the administration never told him that it was annoyed at some policies that President Chen has announced, "they did express some concerns about what a referendum means, what areas it is going to cover, and what does a new constitution mean," he said.

  "We explained it quite extensively, comprehensively and in depth, and I think now they understand much better that it's part of democratization," he said.

  The administration has not changed its policy toward Taiwan, Chen Chien-jen said.

  "I haven't seen any particular change," he said.

  He cited comments last week by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Randall Schriver, which were repeated on Tuesday by Powell.

  The envoy described Taiwan-US relations as "pretty good, very good, too."

  He took issue with remarks by Wen in an interview with The Washington Post on Sunday in which he called on Washington to deter Taiwan's referendum and constitution plans and warned that Beijing "would pay any price" to prevent Taiwan from splitting from China.

  Wen's comments "reflect the PRC's official position," the envoy said.

  "It doesn't mean that his understanding of what's going on in Taiwan is correct," he said.

  On the escalating war threats coming out of Beijing over the past week or so, Chen Chien-jen called them a "serious matter" but said that President Chen and his aides have handled the situation "very carefully."

  "This is why the president has repeatedly emphasized the `four noes, one without' position. He wants to make sure that the people on the other side of the Taiwan Strait understand why and to what extent we're going to have a referendum and a new constitution," the diplomat said.

  He also announced that a national security delegation from Taiwan would be visiting Washington next month for talks with US officials, but did not give further details.

  He also defended American Institute in Taiwan Chairwoman Therese Shaheen against criticism in Taiwan of her remarks that Taipei's concern with submarine purchases was "silly" and other comments made in recent weeks.

  "We all know that Therese Shaheen is a very outgoing lady, very friendly, very warm and sometimes, on the spur of the moment, she talks about things in a very abbreviated form. But if you read the transcript [of the `silly' comments] carefully, she told me that she did not mean some of the interpretations that we heard," the envoy said.
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