US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Tokyo Saturday that Washington will continue to stick to its obligation under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
She also said that the US will maintain its "one China" policy and oppose any unilateral change to the status quo by either side of the Taiwan Strait.
Rice, who was visiting Japan, made the comments in an address at Sophia University in Tokyo. The full text of her speech was released by the State Department the same day.
Pointing out that the US has reason to welcome the rise of China as a confident, peaceful and prosperous country, Rice said that Washington also wants China as "a global partner, able and willing to match its growing capabilities to its international responsibilities."
However, she admitted that some issues, particularly Taiwan, have complicated relations between China and the US.
"Our `one China' policy is clear and unchanged. We oppose unilateral changes to the status quo, whether by word or deed by either party," Rice said.
Saying that Taipei and Beijing must realize that neither side can solve the problem alone and should continue to expand recent steps toward a more productive relationship, Rice reiterated that "in the interest of peace and stability we stand by our obligations under the TRA."
She also said that the US can assure basic security as well as reach out to achieve other goals in the Pacific community because it knows economic and political openness works.
"The ultimate direction of contemporary trends is clear. Openness is the vanguard of success. Time and again we have seen that economic and political openness cannot long be separated. Even China must eventually embrace some form of open, genuinely representative government if it is to reap the benefits and meet the challenges of a globalizing world," she said.
Meanwhile, taking unilateral measures that can only escalate tension is not helpful to resolving cross-strait problems, Rice said in an interview with a Japanese TV station on Saturday.
She made the remarks while touching on China's "Anti-Secession" Law. The US State Department released the contents of the interview the same day.
Saying that neither side of the Taiwan Strait can resolve the cross-strait problem on its own, Rice noted that "unilateral measures that only increase tension rather than reducing them are simply not helpful."
Talking about China's human rights issue and the EU's intention to lift its arms sales ban on China, Rice said that although the US has decided not to seek a human rights resolution at the UN Commission on Human rights this year, the resolution is "something that comes up every year," adding, however, that "the removal of arms embargo doesn't come up every year and once it's removed, it's removed."
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
RSS