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China wants U.S. to oppose Taiwan move

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Dec. 7. China has mounted a diplomatic offensive to secure an assurance from the United States that it opposes Taiwan's moves towards `independence'. This aspect of Beijing's diplomacy has come into sharp focus in the context of the Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao's four-day visit to the U.S., beginning on Sunday.

The Chinese ambassador to the U.S., Yang Jiechi, told the official Xinhua news agency that Beijing `hopes' that Washington would stick to the one-China policy and abide by the three Sino-U.S. joint communiqués. He underlined his country's `hope' that the U.S. would honour its commitments and oppose Taiwan's activities that were aimed at `splitting China'. The significance of these remarks goes beyond the nuances in Sino-U.S. political engagement, according to diplomats and analysts in East Asia. China's concerns are caused by the moves of the Taiwan President, Chen Shui-bian, to hold a "defensive referendum'' next year, on the issue of the territory's future. Mr. Chen's stratagem is to cite China's missile deployments in Taiwan's neighbourhood and ask the people of the territory to vote on that `threat' in a referendum. This move is widely interpreted to signify an indirect plebiscite on the issue of Taiwan's `independence'.

Closely related to these developments is the ambiguity in the U.S. position that it does not support Taiwan's `independence' moves. Some ranking U.S. officials, including Richard Armitage, have indicated that this formulation is not the same as explicit opposition to the idea of Taiwan's `independence' in violation of the one-China principle. This ambiguity has also been reinforced by the U.S. President, George W. Bush, through his statement that Washington would protect Taiwan. It is against this background that China is eager to influence Washington to clear such ambiguities through public diplomacy.

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