The US will try to keep Taiwan as far down the agenda as possible during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) three-day state visit to Washington this week.
During a lengthy White House briefing on the visit, US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon detailed the main topics to be covered during all of Hu’s talks with US President Barack Obama and never once mentioned Taiwan.
China experts agree that US arms sales to Taiwan are of enormous importance to Beijing and conclude that Washington has -decided to play the issue down and leave it up to the other side to introduce it.
Obama has met Hu eight times in the last two years and it is believed that Hu raised Taiwan on each of these occasions.
Hu will arrive in Washington tomorrow evening and will have dinner that night in the private White House residence with Obama, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Donilon. The Chinese president will be accompanied by two senior aides.
Both sides have agreed that the topic of conversation that night will be the overall relationship.
Donilon said they would talk about the tone of the relationship, its purpose, areas of cooperation and whether the right mechanisms for dealing with problems are in place.
They will also discuss how they see the relationship developing over the next 10, 15 and 20 years.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2011/01/17/2003493699
By Annie Hung
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