The US on Wednesday rejected Chinese demands that Washington cut back on weapons sales and other cooperation with Taiwan, insisting that US policy had not changed in recent months.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher made the comments in response to statements Tuesday by Chinese Embassy spokesman Sun Weide (
"I don't know why one needs to talk about `recent US moves,'" Boucher said at his regular daily press briefing. "There's been no change in US policy regarding China and Taiwan."
US officials have repeatedly communicated the US' continuing Taiwan policy to China, Boucher said. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice reiterated the policy during her meetings in Beijing last week with the top Chinese leadership, as did Secretary of State Colin Powell in a recent meeting in Indonesia with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhao-xing (李肇星), Boucher said.
"I think our views are well known. We've committed to a `one China' policy based on the three joint communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act. We've opposed unilateral moves by either side that would change the status quo," he said.
For China, he said, "this means no use of force or other forms of coercion against Taiwan. For Taipei, it means exercising prudence in managing all aspects of cross-straits [sic] relations. But we do not support Taiwan independence."
Boucher pointedly rejected Sun's demand that the US reduce its arms sales commitment to Taiwan.
In a special press conference on Tuesday, Sun had called on Washington to "honor its commitments" under the three communiques, including the 1982 Reagan communique that pledged to reduce and eventually end arms sales if the situation in the Strait warranted that action.
In commenting on the arms sales, Sun was repeating a so-called "three stops" demand that Li made to Rice last week.
In addition to stopping arms sales, Li demanded Washington stop high-level military and other meetings with Taiwan and end efforts to help Taiwan participate in international organizations.
The Sun-Boucher exchange, in the wake of what appears to be testy exchanges between Rice and former president Jiang Zemin (江澤民), President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Li in Beijing, represent an intensification of the verbal battle between the US and China over Taiwan, although both sides insist that overall US-China relations have improved recently, aided by the Rice visit.
Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives late Wednesday night postponed a final vote on a resolution reaffirming the US' "unwavering commitment" to the Taiwan Relations Act, a bill which was introduced last month by Henry Hyde, the chairman of the House International Relations Committee and co-sponsored by more than two dozen lawmakers.
Also see story:
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary