A high-level delegation headed by Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (
The Chen Shui-bian (
The delegation kept a low profile and scrupulously avoided the press during the visit. Both sides had wanted to keep the trip secret but it was leaked to the press earlier this week.
While neither side would give any details, Randall Schriver, the deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, indicated that the referendum issue was one of the topics discussed.
"It's something we know is a very sensitive topic, and it's something that we are watching. And we're willing to hear from the Taiwan side why they think it's important," Schriver told Taiwanese reporters who approached him after he made a public appearance Thursday morning.
Shriver said the referendum decision "is a decision that Taiwan is going to have to make for itself. But I think in terms of the way it's been debated in public in Taiwan, we haven't seen a real compelling need" to conduct the referendums that Chen is currently considering.
"It's been domestic politics, maybe that's what's driving it. If so, it's not necessarily something that we have to proactively support," Schriver said.
However, Schriver declined to discuss any of the other issues that might have come up during the talks with the Chiou delegation.
Washington's reaction to the referendum issue is linked in the eyes of some observers to the arms purchases and Taiwan's overall security posture.
As some US officials see it, Taiwan should not proceed with referendums, which are potentially provocative to China, without assuring its own defensive capability to deal with Beijing's reaction to such provocations, sources said.
The intellectual property rights issue has been a long-standing source of irritation in Washington, which has suspended high-level trade visits between the two capitals in view of the lack of progress by Taipei in halting the illegal copying and distribution of videos, music and other intellectual property.
The delegation was scheduled to meet with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
It was also believed that Stephen Hadley, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's deputy, was on the list. But it was not known which US trade officials the Taiwanese met.
The group also met with members of the Brookings Institution, Heritage Foundation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and other think tanks.
Yesterday, two of the delegation members, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau and National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Ko Cheng-heng (
Officials from the Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and American Institute in Taiwan will also take part. Other members of the Taiwanese delegation are DPP foreign affairs chief and legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (
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