A top foreign policy aide to US President Barack Obama on Wednesday refused to comment on a possible meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes danced around the question, giving little indication of the White House’s reaction. Nevertheless, it was the first time the Obama administration had publicly addressed the possible meeting.
Rhodes was asked at a conference in the US Department of State’s Foreign Press Center how the Obama administration viewed the prospect of a “summit” or meeting between Xi and Ma.
“That is something that both sides would have to agree to,” he said. “We have, as a general matter, supported cross-strait dialogue.”
He said the US had encouraged the “constructive approach” that Ma and Xi had brought to the dialogue.
“As a friend to both sides, what we would want to see is an outcome that reduces any tension across the Strait and that pursues closer ties that benefit both the people of Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China,” Rhodes said.
He had been reminded by the questioner at the conference that Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) and Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) were scheduled to meet in Nanjing on Feb. 11 and that there was speculation that the meeting could lead to a Ma-Xi summit later in the year.
“The US will continue to support cross-strait dialogue, to see it advance and evolve over time, to see it address the different facets of the relationship,” Rhodes said.
If Ma and Xi decided to meet, “that is something we will have to review at the time,” he said.
“We will await to see the outcome of those talks,” he said.
“In the meantime, we will continue our long-standing practice of supporting a one China policy, maintaining our friendship with the people of Taiwan and seeking to support dialogue across the Strait,” he said.
Asked to enlarge on US relations with China this year — a subject Obama barely mentioned in his State of the Union address on Tuesday — Rhodes said that North Korea and Iran would form “key parts” of the agenda.
He said the trade and economic relationship between the US and China would continue to be “broad and entwined.”
Rhodes also said the US would “initiate a dialogue” with Beijing on cybersecurity and cyberconcerns.
“Maritime security will continue to be an issue,” he said.
“If you take an issue like the South China Sea, the US believes there should not be unilateral actions that seek to change facts on the ground,” he said.
He added that problems should be solved with dialogue and established policies.
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