Secretary General to the President Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) did not promise the US government that President Chen shui-bian (陳水扁) would stop using his "one country on each side of the Strait" dictum, said DPP Legislator Chen Chung-hsin (陳忠信), who went with Chiou to Washington last month.
"When Chiou I-jen visited the US, he explained Taiwan's stance to the US government," said Chen Chung-hsin, who is also the head of the DPP's China Affairs Department. "Not once did he promise the US not to talk about `one country on each side of the Strait.'"
Talks between Taipei and Washington are normally confidential. However, Chen Chung-hsin said he had decided speak out because of growing speculation over Chiou's discussions with top US officials, including US Deputy Secretary of the State Richard Armitage.
Local media reported at the beginning of the month that Armitage, in an interview in Washington with a Hong Kong cable channel on July 31, said Chiou had promised US officials President Chen would not use the dictum again.
Chen Chung-hsin said that, according to the text of Armitage's interview, provided by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), Armitage did not mention the dictum and that the only time the word "promise" was mentioned was in a question by the Hong Kong reporter.
According to the transcript provided by the AIT, Armitage answered that the contents of the talks needed to remain confidential.
"Do our reporters speak better English than Armitage?" Chen Chung-hsin asked.
"The other side of the Strait is called the People's Republic of China, and we are called the Republic of China. Neither side can demand the disappearance of the other," Chen Chung-hsin said.
"`One country on each side of the Strait' is a plain statement of the facts. If President Chen, as the president of the Republic of China, cannot talk about the Republic of China and `one country on each side of the Strait,' what can he talk about?" he said.
President Chen first aired the dictum on Aug. 3 last year while addressing via videoconference the 29th Annual Meeting of the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations in Tokyo.
He stressed that Taiwan must go its own way to create a road for its future, explaining that Taiwan's own road meant "democracy, freedom, human rights and peace."
Opposition parties criticized President Chen's dictum as an attempt to succeed former president Lee Teng-hui's (
However, the president recently reaffirmed the dictum, saying that the main theme of next year's presidential election will be the choice for voters between "one China" and "one country on each side."
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