Sat, Jun 26, 2010 page3

• Hu expected to discuss Taiwan in Obama talks

  • By William Lowther / STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
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  Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) is expected to once again condemn US arms sales to Taiwan when he meets with US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Toronto, Canada, this weekend.

  Obama is expected to repeat that the sales are part of a longstanding US policy that is unlikely to be changed no matter how much pressure Beijing applies.

  The US hopes that Hu will move on to other matters in which progress is possible. However, some US officials fear that Hu will use the arms issue to continue the freeze in direct US-China military-to-military communications begun earlier this year after the White House announced its latest arms package to Taipei.

  At a high-level background briefing on the G20 summit earlier this week, a senior administration official was asked if the arms sales would be discussed

  “I think that’s a question really to address to the Chinese side. I don’t anticipate that’s a subject we would be raising. Whether the Chinese raise it, that’s up to them,” the official said.

  “Sometimes they raise the issue and sometimes they don’t. In our recent discussions, it has not been at the center of the meetings, but it’s possible that they will raise it,” he said.

  Asked earlier if the US had a position on the cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), the official said: “Taiwan and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] are still negotiating it. It’s essentially a matter between Taiwan and the PRC. We, of course, want to ensure that any agreement they reach is WTO-consistent.”

  “By and large, US policy for decades has been to encourage the growth of economic, commercial and other relations across the Taiwan Strait. So this agreement, if and when it is reached, would be, we assume, consistent with that overall objective in reducing the frictions between the two sides. And we would view that positively,” the official said.

  Later, another senior official told the Taipei Times that as China considers Taiwan a “core issue,” it was likely that Hu would raise the issue of arms sales with Obama. Direct military-to-military communications were likely to continue to be held hostage to the arms sales, he said.

  Richard Bush, former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, told the Taipei Times that Hu was likely to raise the issue of Taiwan and issue additional warnings against more arms sales.

  “But the bilateral [talks] will likely be dominated by other issues: Economic differences [including Chinese protectionism], Iran and North Korea — specifically the Cheonan incident,” said Bush, director of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies.

  The South Korean naval vessel Cheonan was sunk on March 26. Seoul claims the sinking was caused by a North Korean torpedo.

  Obama will launch a major diplomatic push at the summit by meeting the leaders of India, South Korea, Japan and Indonesia, in addition to Hu.

  Administration officials said Obama intends to emphasize the importance of US links with Asia ahead of a planned trip to India, South Korea and Japan in November.

  One official said of the Obama-Hu meeting: “We have been cooperating and coordinating closely with China on a number of leading priorities heading into this summit, both in terms of the global economy and in terms of security issues.”

  “Our relationship with China is productive, despite disagreements on some key issues,” the official said.

  Hu is also expected to discuss Beijing’s shift in its currency policy at the G20 summit.
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