Word: taipei
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Washington's promises that it will not tamper with Taiwan's future by signing a new U.S.-China communique have not reassured Taipei. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has already responded to Chinese demands with a policy statement nicknamed "the three nos": that is, the U.S. will not support a two-China policy, nor Taiwan's independence, nor Taiwan's membership in the U.N. These are the points that China wants Clinton to write down and sign...
...mere possibility of such a Clinton-Jiang agreement has officials in Taipei frazzled. China hopes to use better relations with the U.S. as bait, to entice Washington into a joint effort to put pressure on Taiwan. Taiwan is worried that some arm-twisting could be coming. "We believe the U.S. should not discuss the three nos with Beijing," says Chen Chien-jen, director-general of the Government Information Office in Taipei. Adds Vice Foreign Minister David Lee: "We don't want this written down because we don't want Beijing to interpret what independence means...
...Chinese leaders tested that American commitment in 1996 when they lobbed a barrage of missiles perilously close to major ports in Taiwan. Clinton replied by dispatching two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups to the waters around Taiwan. Everyone learned a lesson from the scrape. Taipei and Washington found out that Beijing will respond militarily to what it thinks are President Lee Teng-hui's tendencies toward independence. China discovered that the U.S. would not let Taiwan be shoved around if it had done nothing wrong. Since then, Washington has indicated that it is not ready to help defend Taiwan...
While accepting in theory that unification could come in some form someday when the mainland is democratic and prosperous, Taiwan has no intention of ever going back to being one province in a China ruled from Beijing. Taipei is not impressed with Jiang's offer of a special status like that of Hong Kong. "It will never happen," says John Chang, secretary-general of the Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang. "We are not Hong Kong, a British colony that could not choose its future. This is a Chinese government...
...been America's star pupil. Under U.S. tutelage Taiwan has modernized its economy, built a thriving democracy, opened up a free press. It is one of the world's leading trading nations and one of the most prosperous. And yet, by succeeding, Taiwan has become a problem for Washington. Taipei's dynamic de facto independence may one day trigger a Chinese ultimatum: blockade or attack. It will then be up to the U.S. to decide whether Taiwan's status quo has a future...