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United States Opposes Taiwanese Referendum on Chinese Missiles
The Bush administration yesterday warned Taiwan against holding a referendum next year on whether to ask China to remove its ballistic missiles targeting the island — a move seen as potentially provocative toward Beijing, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, Nov. 8). “We don’t want such a referendum,” a senior Bush administration official said. “We’re not clear what logical purpose it would serve. I can tell you right now that 99.6 percent of the Taiwan people would love to see the mainland withdraw its missiles. Confirming that fact through a referendum … confirms the obvious,” the official said. The senior administration official said the White House has dropped its policy of “strategic ambiguity” — a lack of response on how the United States would react to changes in Taiwan’s status. As part of the new approach, the United States would not tolerate “coercion or the use of force” by China to reunite with Taiwan, the official said. At the same time, the White House also does not support full independence for Taiwan, the official added. “I will tell you that we are giving the Taiwanese the message very clearly and very authoritatively that we don’t want to see steps toward independence and we don’t want to see moves taken, proposals made, that a logical outsider would conclude are really geared primarily toward moving the island in that direction,” the official said (Kessler/Allen, Washington Post, Dec. 9). Taiwanese officials said today, however, that they would go on with the referendum as planned. The referendum “shouldn’t be considered as anything provocative,” said Joseph Wu, deputy chief of staff for foreign policy for Taiwanese President Chen Shui-ban. “The missile threat has been there and is increasing,” Wu said (New York Times, Dec. 9).
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