WASHINGTON, 11 December 2003 — For the second time in two-and-a-half years, President George W. Bush’s blunt, concise language on Taiwan is unleashing political shockwaves across the Pacific to Asia.
Bush on Tuesday uncorked a brusque rebuke of the nationalist island’s President Chen Shui-bian over his plans for a referendum next year critical of China’s military threat. His reprimand was all the more extraordinary given the identity of his companion in the Oval Office — Premier Wen Jiabao of China, who views the referendum idea as a forbidden step down the road to independence. In just over two-and-a-half years, Bush had gone from his famous vow of April 2001 to do “whatever it took” to defend Taiwan, which enraged Beijing, to siding with a top Communist leader against Taiwan’s democratically elected president.
“We oppose any unilateral decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo,” Bush said after talks with Wen.
“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.”
Bush’s comments went far beyond what Wen had hoped to extract from the US side, according to one source who met the premier several days ago. Later Wen told US business executives in a speech at a central Washington hotel that he was satisfied with Bush’s remarks. “I am very happy that in my talks with President Bush, he sent a very clear, loud signal to the whole world.”
In a first reaction to his ticking off from Bush, Chen defended his plans. “We must safeguard the status quo of Taiwan’s independence from being changed. All measures taken, including the defensive referendum, are meant to avoid war and relieve people from fears,” he said yesterday. “We want to maintain a status quo of peace and stability instead of one of missile deployment and military threat,” Chen said in his office.
Beijing has repeatedly warned it will use military force against Taiwan, which it sees as a rebel province, if it declares independence. Bush’s terse statement dismayed his backers in the conservative foreign policy establishment, and exposed his administration to claims it had sacrificed democracy in Taiwan for its own strategic interests.
“I have to agree with those that say this kind of a statement by an American president is not consistent with his commitment to the expansion of global democracy,” said John Tkacik of the conservative Heritage Foundation. “This kind of an utterance is just so far away from the values that President Bush holds dearly that I have to imagine he has been advised poorly.”
Top US officials rejected the idea that Washington’s opposition to a popular vote in Taiwan was incompatible with its quest for global democracy. “Just holding a referendum on something doesn’t suddenly make it an act of democracy,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
The abrupt nature of Bush’s remarks surprised some analysts, but the substance was less of a shock, in that US calls on Taiwan to step back from the referendum have built to a crescendo in recent days — to no discernible effect. “I was surprised by the clarity, the use of the word ‘oppose’ publicly and the forcefulness with which he mentioned specifically the president of Taiwan,” said David Lampton, of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins university.
