Bush pushes Taiwan to cancel referendum

By Bob Kemper and (William Neikirk
Chicago Tribune

	Wen Jiabao
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Bush's remarks followed weeks of public pressure and behind-the-scenes diplomacy by the U.S. aimed at persuading Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, to cancel a March referendum calling on China to aim its ballistic missiles away from Taiwan and end its intimidating behavior toward the island.

"We oppose any unilateral decision, by either China or Taiwan, to change the status quo," Bush said. "And the comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally to change the status quo, which we oppose."

Taiwanese officials yesterday denied that the referendum was part of a larger strategy to sever itself from China and said they would proceed with plans to place it on the March ballot despite U.S. opposition.

Bush's advisers insisted he is not changing the careful diplomatic balance the U.S. has tried to maintain in its complex relationship with China and Taiwan. The U.S. policy, often characterized as "strategic ambiguity," encourages democracy in Taiwan while simultaneously viewing Taiwan as a part of communist China.

Those developments, and Bush's remarks, come at a delicate moment in U.S. relations with China.

China is a crucial intermediary in U.S. negotiations with North Korea over the elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons program and, for now, remains America's best hope for avoiding a military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula.

The United States also is hoping to persuade Beijing to adopt new monetary policies that could reduce the nearly $120 billion U.S. trade deficit with China.

Bush appeared concerned in part that a flare-up between China and Taiwan could destabilize the region at a time when the U.S. military is already spread thin in Afghanistan and Iraq. China in 1996 fired missiles into the waters around Taiwan to intimidate voters during a presidential election, prompting the U.S. to send warships to the region.

Geopolitics aside, the tensions place Bush in a political quandary.

After publicly committing his administration to spreading democracy to the Middle East and elsewhere, the president now is cautioning a democratic nation, and its elected president, not to exercise its right to a referendum. The image of Bush sitting beside a Chinese leader in the Oval Office while admonishing Taiwan riled political conservatives, who have long championed democracy on the island.

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