President Chen reiterates 'four noes' during meeting with AIT's Burghardt

        President Chen Shui-bian reiterated June 8 his intention to keep the remaining promises he made in his 2000 inaugural address, including what has come to be known as the "four noes" policy. This intention remains unchanged, he said, and will continue to remain unchanged until the end of his term of office two years from now.

        Chen made the statement during a meeting in Taipei with American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt. Burghardt arrived in Taipei June 7 for his first visit since assuming the post in February as the top U.S. liaison with Taiwan in the absence of formal ties.

        The "four noes" policy refers to Chen's vow never to declare Taiwanese independence, change the name of the country, enshrine the "special state-to-state" concept of cross-strait relations into the ROC Constitution, or hold a referendum on sovereignty issues. The promises, Chen pointed out, are contingent upon China's not using force against Taiwan or threatening to do so.

        "That was a very positive thing for him to do in terms of maintaining a stable situation," Burghardt said about Chen's reiteration of his promises.

        During the same meeting, Chen said that, given Taiwan's immature social conditions and the current political turmoil on the island, sensitive issues concerning sovereignty and changes to territorial boundaries and the national title will be excluded from his administration's plans for constitutional reform.

        Chen's remarks were greeted positively in Washington, with U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack issuing a statement June 8 calling Chen's reaffirmation of these promises "an important contribution to stability" and urging Beijing "to take parallel steps to fulfill its obligations for regional peace and stability, including by reaching out to Taiwan's duly elected leaders." In the opinion of ROC Foreign Minister James Huang, the prompt response to Chen's remarks from the United States is evidence that communication channels between Taipei and Washington are smooth and sound, and the meeting between Chen and Burghardt was the most direct and candid form of communication.

        Huang said that Taiwan's agenda is to maintain the cross-strait status quo and to prevent it from being altered. He urged China to take the U.S. advice seriously and start engaging in direct dialogue with the elected leaders of Taiwan.

        According to a Web site operated by the ROC government, as well as transcripts of the 2000 inaugural speech, the original policy, called the "five noes" policy, included a promise not to abolish the National Unification Guidelines and the National Unification Council (NUC), which Chen mothballed earlier this year.

        In a strictly technical sense, Chen did not "abolish" them, which would be breaking his promise. On Feb. 27, he announced that the NUC would "cease to function" and the guidelines would "cease to apply." Despite the semantic gymnastics, this still effectively reduced the "five noes" policy to a "four noes" policy and triggered a widespread controversy.

        During a press conference with Taiwanese reporters, Burghardt said Washington is satisfied with Chen's move and for the United States now, the controversy over the issue is closed.

        Unlike the other noes that Chen pledged in his 2000 inaugural speech, Burghardt said the United States did not care much about the ceasing of the function of the NUC because "it doesn't touch on constitutional issues." "The other four involve issues of sovereignty that are embedded in the Constitution," and that is "a rather important inherent difference," he explained.

        During his meeting with Burghardt, Chen spoke about his May 26 meeting with Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Karan Bhatia, who is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Taiwan in the past six years. Chen said he believes the visit symbolized the strengthening of bilateral economic and trade relations between the United States and Taiwan. He also noted that the fifth Taiwan-U.S. talks on the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) held in Taipei led to progress in such areas as agricultural exports, pharmaceutical pricing, telecommunications and protection of intellectual property rights.

        On the same occasion, Chen also thanked the United States for supporting Taiwan's entry to the World Health Assembly as an observer two years ago. The president made note of the fact that this year, the United States supported Taiwan's participation in the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network.

        The visiting AIT chairman told reporters June 9 that Taiwan would need to push for further economic liberalization with China if it wanted to remain a global economic player.

        "Taiwan will need to open up and expand these kinds of economic cross-strait relations--trade and investment, liberalization--in order to continue to be the important player it is today in world trade," Burghardt said.

        Burghardt stressed that it is important for Taiwan to be "seen by investors, by all the economic players in the world today, both governments and the private players, as a country that is fully engaged in all the exciting growth that is going on in this part of the world... not a place that is cutting itself off." He said he believes fears that further economic integration with China might lead to a hollowing out of local industries and hurt other national economic interests are unfounded. "Taiwan has every reason to feel very self-confident. The macroeconomic figures are very, very good, very bright," he said.