President Chen Shui-bian (
"To be an international power, as it is widely expected to be, China must understand its responsibilities for the new role on the world stage. But even if China understands its new responsibilities it is to face, the question is whether it has the ability to carry out those responsibilities," Chen said.
"A world power is by no means a country which actively builds up its armed forced or compels smaller countries into accepting its demands through military means. As a world power, China must understand that establishing its status in the world does not come by squeezing Taiwan's international space and creating tension in the Taiwan Strait," he said.
"In its engagement with China, the US must allow China to understand its responsibilities as a world power. At the same time, Taiwan should join hands with the US to help China become a responsible and capable world power," he said.
"What's most worrying to us at the moment is that we are still at constant threat from a `rogue state' whose behavior often deviates from international norms."
Chen made the remarks at a speech at the opening ceremony of a roundtable meeting in Taipei between members of the US-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Society (CSIS) and local government officials and scholars.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Hung-miao (
At the same time, Tien called on China to make a goodwill response to President Chen's "conciliatory gestures" for the sake of peace and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait.
"As President Chen has said, both sides of the Strait are creative and wise enough to find ways to resolve the differences between them. Taipei and Beijing can first find a pattern of interaction under the frameworks of the WTO and APEC," Tien said.
"The mode of interaction can be expanded to other international settings. A pattern of constructive engagement can be thus established between the two," he said.
"We hope peace and prosperity will replace hostility and confrontation in the Taiwan Strait. Although it sounds like a dream, we must be patient and optimistic."
Ex-US Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre, now president and CEO of CSIS, said: "Americans feel that it is not going to be possible to resolve the differences between the two sides if there is a climate of intimidation that hangs over the discussions," Hamre said.
"Americans believe in fair play. If there is unprovoked intimidation [using military force against Taiwan], the US will just be what we were during the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis. No one here intends to provoke China," he said.
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