The US government should forgo all references to “one China” in the context of Taiwan-related issues and policies, because the term is imprecise and misleading as Taiwan was never part of China, former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director William Stanton said yesterday.
Stanton, who headed the AIT’s Taipei office from 2009 to 2012, made the appeal during a speech on Taiwan-China policy in the US at a Taichung luncheon, which was organized by the Tai-Yang Cultural and Educational Foundation.
Taiwan was never part of China and the use of “one China,” which has always meant something different to Washington and Beijing, is inaccurate, misleading and confusing, Stanton said, adding that Washington should no longer say that it has a “one China” policy, as “that does not mean anything anymore.”
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
The US government should also refrain from mentioning the Three Joint Communiques “as if they were the Bible,” Stanton said.
The first communique had the facts wrong and the third was effectively repudiated by the “six assurances” given to Taiwan by then-US president Ronald Reagan in 1982, he said.
Another problem is that Beijing and Washington have interpreted the first communique differently, Stanton added.
“They [the Chinese] use a different verb to say we acknowledge the Chinese position and they say cheng ren [承認, “agree with”], which has different meanings,” he said, referring to a section in the first part of the 1982 US-China joint communique that says that the US “acknowledged the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China.”
Washington should initiate, but not necessarily advertise, exchanges of high-level officials between Taiwan and the US as called for in the Taiwan Travel Act, which was signed into law by US President Donald Trump in March, Stanton said.
However, Taiwan should carefully weigh the potential risk of such visits, he said.
Stanton was wary about a potential visit by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to Washington, which some seem to be bandying about lately, including Joseph Bosco, former China country director in the office of the US secretary of defense, in an opinion piece on Monday last week in the political newspaper The Hill.
“If we are going to provoke China, it should be [for something] of lasting importance to Taiwan. I think that is the view of many people,” Stanton said, adding that Tsai should decide how much she would like to push for such a visit.
Asked on Tuesday last week to comment on Bosco’s piece, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied that Tsai planned to visit Washington, but did not elaborate.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to