White House Gives Taiwan a Warning

Seeking to defuse tensions between China and Taiwan, the Bush administration has warned Taiwan against moving unilaterally toward independence and criticized the island’s planned March referendum that has exacerbated relations between Beijing and Taipei, a senior administration official said Monday.

But President Bush also intends to make clear to China’s leadership that it should not interpret U.S. opposition to any moves by Taiwan toward independence as a go-ahead to take control of the island by force, the official said.

“We don’t want to see Taiwan moving toward independence. We don’t want to see any unilateral moves in that direction,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We also don’t want to see the mainland moving toward coercion.”

The official’s remarks to reporters came on the eve of a meeting today between Bush and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, and signaled an attempt by Washington to speak more forcefully on an issue that has been strategically shrouded in ambiguity for decades.

While the U.S. has offered to protect Taiwan in the event of an attack, it also says it backs the “one China” policy, which holds that Taiwan is part of China.

Since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949, China has regarded Taiwan, now a thriving democracy and economic powerhouse, as a breakaway province. Taiwan, though, has sought to assert its independence -- particularly under its current leader, Chen Shui-bian, who is running for reelection and has called a March 20 referendum that would urge China to stop threatening Taiwan and redirect hundreds of missiles aimed at the island.

Beijing has reacted by threatening military action, warning that the vote would move Taiwan closer to independence and demanding that the U.S. clearly oppose Chen’s move.

The China reunification question has bedeviled every recent U.S. president. But its sudden reemergence comes at a particularly difficult time for Bush, who is busy with Iraq, Afghanistan and efforts to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program. Key to Bush’s strategy on North Korea is involving Beijing, an ally of Pyongyang, in talks.

Bush created a brief flap in April 2001 by declaring that the U.S. would do “whatever it took to help Taiwan defend herself” and said the deployment of American troops was “certainly an option” if China were to invade the island. Bush quickly sought to correct any impression that his remarks constituted a departure from long-standing American policy, which is deliberately vague on how the U.S. would protect Taiwan.

The administration’s stern message to Taiwan was conveyed by James Moriarty, a senior Asian affairs official at the National Security Council, who went to Taipei last week, officials said.

Monday’s briefing on Moriarty’s mission was in keeping with the overall U.S. desire to prevent tensions between China and Taiwan from spiraling out of hand, especially at a time when Chen appears to be “pushing the envelope pretty vigorously,” in the words of the senior administration official.

“This is part of a strategy to convince the Chinese that we’re serious, that we understand their concerns and are going to unique lengths to try to keep the situation under control,” said Richard C. Bush III, a former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a centrist public policy center in Washington.

Sean McCormack, a National Security Council spokesman, said Monday that there was no change in the one-China policy.

“The U.S. opposes any unilateral attempts to change Taiwan’s status. This applies both to Beijing’s possible use of force and any moves by Taiwan itself, including referenda and constitutional reform, that would change the status quo on independence or unification,” he said. “We urge both sides to refrain from actions or statements that increase tensions or make dialogue more difficult.”

A former official said that there has been debate within the administration on “how far to lean against independence for Taiwan,” then added: “But the policy hasn’t changed; we’re in the same place we’ve been since the Clinton years.”

China had no immediate reaction to Monday’s remarks from the U.S., but Jia Qingguo, associate dean of Beijing University’s School of International Studies, said the U.S. was “only defending American national interests” with the move.

“If the straits situation is stable, people in the U.S., the mainland, Taiwan and the region are better off. This is good news for everyone.”

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Eugene Chien said today that the island is aware of U.S. concerns.

Washington “doesn’t want our referendum to affect the stability in the Taiwan Strait. We fully understand,” he said. “On the other hand, we need to widen our democracy, and we need U.S. support for this.”

Chen initially promoted a referendum on relations with China if its security were directly threatened. But he scaled back his language after Moriarty’s visit, saying that he would hold a referendum on whether China should withdraw the missiles that are threatening Taiwan and renounce the use of force against the island. Because such a vote would have no practical impact, some see it as an attempt to stir up anti-China sentiment.

“There is a widespread perception [in Washington] that Chen is actively baiting the bull and creating a crisis, and the last thing the administration needs -- with Iraq, Iran and North Korea on its hands -- is another crisis,” said retired Rear Adm. Michael McDevitt, an East Asian security specialist at the Center for Naval Analyses in Alexandria, Va. “We believe, correctly I think, that we’re being manipulated by internal [Taiwanese] politics.”

The Taiwan matter is all the more sensitive for Bush because he has been touting the spread of democracy in Iraq and other Mideast nations. His tough stance on Taiwan is likely to displease conservatives, who fear that Bush may be compromising his principles by courting a totalitarian nation because of its strategic importance.

Wen, who took office in March, dined here Monday night with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. In New York earlier, Wen warned the Bush administration against imposing further trade barriers on Chinese products and urged Washington to increase exports to his country as a way of lowering its ballooning trade deficit. The U.S. trade deficit with China is set to reach at least $120 billion this year, the largest imbalance ever between the U.S. and any country.

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Times staff writers Sonni Efron in Washington and Mark Magnier in Beijing contributed to this report.