The US has warned China not to consider the use of military force against Taiwan, as Beijing continues to escalate its war of words against President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) pledge to hold a referendum and write a new constitution, which China views as attempts to declare indepen-dence.
"The use of force to resolve cross-strait differences is unacceptable," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
"We oppose any attempt by either side to unilaterally change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait," he told reporters in his regular daily press briefing.
He was responding to a statement overnight by Wang Zaixi (
"If the Taiwan authorities collude with all splittist forces to openly engage in pro-independence activities and challenge the mainland and the one-China principle, the use of force may become unavoidable," Wang said, according to a report in the Chinese-language media.
Privately, though, US officials appear to be downplaying Wang's remarks and the increasingly strident warnings Beijing has issued in recent days.
One senior administration official says that Beijing's tough talk may represent a "frustration" China feels about its inability to influence the course of events.
"They feel hamstrung," the official told the Taipei Times, "that they can't respond in an overly negative way or heavy-handed way, because to do so risks a repeat of 1996 and 2000, when they actually contributed to the fortunes of the candidate they did not wan to win."
He was referring to the missile exercise China mounted in the Strait in 1996, that might have contributed to the election of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), and Beijing's bellicose pronouncements, including a White Paper that threatened military action in 2000, that is seen as having contributed to Chen's victory.
Meanwhile, US and Chinese officials have stepped up their consultation about the Taiwan Strait crisis in recent days. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly raised the issue in Beijing, where he is visiting to discuss the North Korea situation, according to US officials, and the State Department has met with Chinese Embassy officials to discuss the situation.
"We talk to the Chinese every day," noted one administration official. "We don't want to see the ratcheting up of tensions," and have told that to the Chinese, the official said.
The increasingly strident Chinese comments are gaining the attention of top US officials.
"We're noting the fact that Beijing is more concerned and [we are] paying attention to what they're saying, both privately and publicly," a senior official said.
Nevertheless, officials say "we're not worried."
US-China specialists note that the most threatening of the comments recently have come from Wang's Taiwan Affairs Office.
"They appear particularly frustrated," a US official said, "because it is their policy, and people are complaining to them that `You guys are not saying anything or doing anything' about Chen's activities," an official noted.
The White House has declined comment on the situation.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS