US Department of State Spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday that the Taiwan authorities' decision to change the cover of the Taiwan passport has nothing to do with the US and will not affect Washington's Taiwan policy.
Boucher made the remarks while responding to questions raised at a daily briefing.
Commenting on Taipei's decision to change the cover of the passport to include the word "Taiwan," effective Sept. 1, Boucher said: "This is a matter for a decision by the Taiwan authorities. It is their decision and we were not part of it."
Pointing out that the officials in authorities have stated publicly that adding "Taiwan" to the cover of the passport does not represent any change in policy, Boucher said that "there is certainly no change in the US `one China' policy either."
He added that the Taipei passport decision will not affect "how the US handles travel by, or travel documents of, the people of Taiwan."
According to Minister of Foreign Affaris Eugene Chien (簡又新), his ministry decided on the change because foreign immigration officials and air carriers often mistake "Republic of China" for "People's Republic of China," China's official name, which often causes trouble for passport holders from Taiwan.
Richard Haass, director of the US Department of State Policy Planning Bureau, said Friday that US President George W. Bush's recent meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) does not represent any change in Washington's cross-strait policy.
Haass made the remarks while explaining US cross-strait policy following the Bush-Hu meeting at an online press conference.
In his meeting with Hu June 1 in Evian, France, where the leaders of the G8 industrialized nations gathered to meet with leaders from developing countries -- including China -- Bush reaffirmed Washington's "one China" policy and the US stance of no support for Taiwan independence.
The views voiced during the meeting over the cross-strait issue prompted analyses from scholars, with some expressing concern with the direction of the US' China policy.
In response to questions as to whether Bush's words at the meeting represent a change in US policy, Haass said that the brief answer is "no change."
"There has been no policy shift," he said, adding that it is still governed by US commitments under the three communiques as well as the Taiwan Relations Act. "There simply has not been any shift in our policy toward Taiwan or toward the entire matter," the official said.
Meanwhile, Philip Reeker, US Department of State deputy spokesman, also said Friday that supporting Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Assembly as an observer is a consistent policy of the US rather than a policy made under pressure from Congress.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS