Appeasement, US decline continues .."Taiwan joining UN as Taiwan would be a mistake"

Continuing anti-Taiwan shift seen in Bush White House

Premier Wen Jiabao meets with visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in Beijing on Jan. 16.

GERTZ:Further indications of the Bush administration’s shift in policy in favor of Beijing and away from Taiwan were disclosed in Beijing last week during the strategic dialogue meeting headed by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.

Negroponte was quoted as saying that Taiwan’s planned referendum on joining the United Nations as a “Taiwan,” instead of its formal name, the Republic of China, would be a mistake.

"The United States thinks it certainly would have been preferable not to have such a 'referendum,'" Negroponte said.

The comment followed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s remark in December that the referendum was a “provocative” move by Taiwan’s pro-independence government.

China has been pressuring the United States to take the anti-Taiwan stance and the Bush administration has accommodated the requests.

Senior U.S. officials, however, have made no similar comments criticizing China’s provocative actions, including the build up of missiles opposite Taiwan, its anti-satellite weapons test and its refusal to allow U.S. warship visits to Hong Kong.

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