Powell's China Comments Anger Taiwanese

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) has angered Taiwanese officials and lawmakers by making unusually strong comments denying that the island is an independent nation and suggesting Taiwan should unify with China.

Washington usually avoids weighing in on the touchy split, which arose when Mao Zedong's communist army won control of the Chinese mainland in 1949 and anti-communist forces took refuge on Taiwan.

But Powell waded into the unification question Monday in interviews with CNN and Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television during a one-day visit to China.

According to a State Department transcript, Powell told Phoenix: "There is only one China. Taiwan is not independent. It does not enjoy sovereignty as a nation, and that remains our policy, our firm policy."

That was a departure from the U.S. government's longtime "one China policy," a purposely fuzzy approach that merely "acknowledges" people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait agree there is one China. Washington also insists differences should be settled peacefully and in recent years has emphasized that the Taiwanese people should have a say in the matter. [more]

I suppose Powell is out there in the continued attempt to repair Sino-American relations after W appeared on Good Morning America back his first 100 days in office and gave away the diplomatic store on Taiwan:

GIBSON : I'm curious, if you, in your own mind, feel that if Taiwan were attacked by China, do we have an obligation to defend the Taiwanese?

BUSH : Yes, we do, and the Chinese must understand that. Yes, I would.

GIBSON : With the full force of American military?

BUSH : Whatever it took to help Taiwan defend herself.

Bush's comments marked a clear reversal of 30 years of American policy in relation to China and Taiwan based on a doctrine known as "strategic ambiguity" and the first (i think) major gaff in a long line of foreign policy mistakes from this administration.