The US Department of Defense has revised articles carried by its official news service that made reference to Taiwan after complaints from Taiwanese officials in Washington.
The officials objected to references contained in articles released by the Armed Forces Press Service on Saturday and Sunday about US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' trip to China, where he discussed a wide range of bilateral and regional issues, including China's breakneck military expansion and Taiwan.
On Monday, the press service eliminated the offending references from the articles on its Web site and the Pentagon's spokesman for East Asian affairs, Major Stewart Upton, conceded that the original references were "inaccurate."
This was after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had instructed Taiwanese Representative to the US Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) to ask for "clarification" on the articles.
"The first thing in the morning [on Monday], on instructions from Taipei, we [got] in touch with the Pentagon, the State Department and some of the relevant government agencies," Deputy Representative Stanley Kao (
"Very quickly we got the response from the American authorities that the US cross-strait policy remains unchanged," Kao said.
"So, quickly the Pentagon made the correction. We are appreciative of this response, the quick rectification of the US position," he said.
"We will continue to [ensure] that people involved in news releases, without looking into the nuances, the subtlety of this very sensitive cross-strait issue, no longer make any mistakes that cause misunderstanding or uneasiness," Kao said.
"We are satisfied with the corrections. Hopefully, that is the end of the story," he said.
Gates arrived in Beijing on Sunday for two days of talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao (
In an article on Saturday previewing Gates' trip, press service reporter Jim Garamone described US policy on cross-strait relations as "a sincere desire to see reunification done in a peaceful manner." Garamone also referred to the government's planned referendum on joining the UN under the name "Taiwan" as an "independence referendum."
The next day, another Garamone article said the US was "against independence for the island nation."
Those three references were removed from the articles on Monday. The article released on Sunday carried this editor's note: "This article was modified from the form in which it was originally published to correct our coverage." Saturday's archived article contained no such note.
The revised articles say only that: "The Chinese are concerned about the up-coming referendum in Taiwan which the United States also opposes."
They no longer contain any reference to "independence."
US policy is now described as "a sincere desire to see the Taiwan issue resolved in a peaceful manner." The word "reunification" is not mentioned.
Sunday's article says merely that "The US delegation expects the Chinese to also bring up Taiwan."
Upton said US policy on Taiwan is "consistent and clear."
"The United States remains committed to a peaceful resolution in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, the United States opposes unilateral change, by either side, to the `status quo,'" he said.
"The US has an abiding interest that any resolution of the cross-strait situation be peaceful. The United States would view any use of force against Taiwan with grave concern and remains committed to meet its obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act," Upton said.
While US officials have long said they "do not support" Taiwan's independence, they have never publicly said they "oppose" or "are against" it.
Meanwhile, Gates declined to say anything about Taiwan during a press conference with Chinese Minister of Defense Cao Gangchuan (曹剛川) after their meeting in Beijing on Monday.
The Pentagon made a transcript available in Washington.
Asked about US views on China's military buildup, including US expectations of a Chinese response if Washington came to Taiwan's defense in a war, Gates spoke mainly about the value of greater military dialogue.
Cao, however, delivered a lengthy warning against the possibility of Taiwan's independence.
"The Chinese government will act in accordance with the `Anti-Secession' Law to take any necessary actions to maintain the unification of the country and safeguard peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits [sic]," he said.
The "Anti-Secession" Law, passed in 2005, commits Beijing to military action to prevent Taiwan's independence.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) told a press conference in Taipei yesterday that the US had clarified the "inaccuracies" contained in its articles.
"The US addressed the three points [of contention] in its articles one by one, saying that they [didn't accurately reflect] the official US position on Taiwan policy," Yeh said.
"We came to understand that US government departments, other than the State Department, are not very familiar with cross-strait issues. We have to enhance communication with them," she said.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS