Damage Control!
Scramble the diplomats!
Posted on 11/23/2009 10:24:42 PM PST by AmericanInTokyo
US eases Taiwan’s fears over China TAIPEI, Nov 24 — The United States has moved quickly to reassure Taiwan, less than a week after President Barack Obama’s visit to China, by sending a senior diplomat to Taipei to allay fears that the island’s interests have been compromised.
Raymond Burghardt, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy here, flew into Taipei on Sunday, just five days after Obama met Chinese President Hu Jintao last Tuesday.
“President Obama did not in any way change our long-standing position on Taiwan,” Burghardt told reporters after meeting Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng yesterday morning.
He will meet President Ma Ying-jeou today before leaving tomorrow.
The official line from the Taiwan government is that there is nothing to worry about, and Ma said last week that relations between the US, China and Taiwan were the best in 60 years.
But the fact that Burghardt has to give such an assurance underlines the unease in Taiwan over a perceived American tilt towards China.
Dr Vincent Wang, chairman of the political science department at the University of Richmond, noted that some passages in the joint statement issued after Obama’s meeting with Hu “may give some people the impression that the US has moved towards or even tacitly endorsed the Chinese positions”.
Concerns arose, for example, over the use of the term “peaceful development of cross-strait ties” in the statement.
Dr Wang said: “To the US, ‘peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait’ is a generic description of its expectation that relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should be conducted, and perhaps improved, through peaceful means.
“It’s not the same as China’s ‘peaceful development’, which is the primary stage, or more conciliatory formulation, of its stated policy of ‘peaceful unification’.”
Some also point to the omission of the Taiwan Relations Act, a 1979 US law that was passed after the US switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China, in the statement.
The Act authorises the sale of defensive weapons to Taiwan and has been a source of contention between Beijing and Washington.
However, most analysts believe it was omitted to give face to China. Obama subsequently mentioned the Act at a press conference in the presence of Hu.
In view of this, Burghardt told reporters yesterday that Obama had broached the topic of Taiwan and arms sales in private talks with Hu.
Still, many across the political spectrum in Taiwan believe that Washington is nudging Taipei towards political dialogue with Beijing, as they examine the phrase that the US “is ready to see the enhanced dialogue and communication across the Strait in terms of economy, politics and other spheres”.
Taiwan scholars note that forcing Taiwan to negotiate with China is a violation of the Six Assurances, which the late US President Ronald Reagan gave to Taiwan in 1982.
Dr Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the Hawaii-based East-West Centre, told The Straits Times that the US policy on Taiwan might not have changed officially, but that he would not be surprised if “the Obama administration is relatively less inclined than some previous US governments to put Taiwan’s concerns ahead of the US-China relationship”. — The Straits Times
Damage Control!
Scramble the diplomats!
Hey Taiwan, here’s the truth:
If at any time during the reign of Barry you are attacked by China, your on your own or at the very least, it will take Barry 3+ months to decide whether to commit US forces to aid you. Oppps, my bad, in 3+ months, China will have overrun Taiwan.....
If I were the Taiwanese, I wouldn’t trust any assurances or promises this lying President and his cohorts might make. This bum in the White House would rather hobnob with dictators and socialist leaders. Between China and Taiwan, you know he’s going to side with communist China every time.
I’m too tired to go into depth about the complete lack of surprise I have at this. Suffice it to say, Obama ain’t no Reagan.
Good night, all.
Same goes for Free Honduras, South Korea, Japan, Israel, Eastern Europe, India, Colombia, you name it. Friendly countries are going to be invaded or attacked, and average people in them are going to get killed over this absolute, unforgiveable nonsense being conducted globally by this crowd of amateurs in Washington.
But I think she has resigned?
At least after explaining the Obama revised position and soothing ruffled feathers in Taipei, she could entertain and amazer her Taiwanese guests with her own deep knowledge and personal love and adoration of Mao Tse- Tung.
VAN JONES : MARCH 2009 “ NO MORE BROKEN TREATIES, NO MORE BROKEN TREATIES “
lol!
It'll probably also happen on a late Saturday night.
I would say that Australia, Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, South Korea, etc. need to form some sort of Pacific alliance. The US is out of the ballgame at this point and it’s only going to get worse.
They would all squabble among themselves as to who the leader would be, (and Singapore probably would not join for fear of offending China) but yes, I would say that is an excellent stop gap for the next three years for regional Asian Free Country mutual self defense, and when President Palin came to power in 2013, with Secretary of State John Bolton at the helm, why it could be scrapped and we could return to sanity and what has always worked. Our friends being are our friends, our enemies being our enemies.
bump!
Perhaps these gaps are “bait” if you know what I mean.
Most likely. They probably surface to air missiles hidden underneath camoflage nets that the satellites have not detected.
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