U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2008)

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Tom Casey, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
April 21, 2008

12:50 p.m. EDT

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QUESTION: Do you have any details on the U.S. apparently building a new Marine barrack in Taiwan, which would, I guess, signal something -- somewhat of a shift in Taipei?

MR. CASEY: Well, yeah. I did look into this and I think there's a bit of confusion here. What is happening is there are discussions about having a new compound or new complex built to replace the existing AIT structure in Taipei. The notices that have gone out have included the broadest possible kinds of elements that might be included in there. But at this point, I'm not aware that there are any plans to station U.S. Marines at AIT in Taipei. And I don't think anything that is in this notice is indicative of anything more than if you're looking to have someone contract for a potential project, you want to give them the full range of possible options there. But I don't think anyone should see this as a signal that we're changing our policy or that we intend to place Marines, at this point, at AIT Taipei.

QUESTION: Will there be a Marine barrack within that or is that just a possibility in the plan?

MR. CASEY: It's a possibility, but it's not -- again, this is a request for proposals on a range of options for a new building and for a new compound. And again, there certainly would be a security element to that. There is a security element in AIT there right now, though it isn't U.S. Marines that are providing it.

QUESTION: Who is it?

MR. CASEY: I'm not sure who the contractor is, but it's a contract authority.

Yeah.

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QUESTION: Tom, do you have any details about the meeting between Under Secretary Dobriansky with the Dalai Lama this morning?

MR. CASEY: Well, I haven't had a chance to talk with Under Secretary Dobriansky yet, but she did meet this morning with the Dalai Lama in Ann Arbor. This is in her role as the Special Coordinator for Tibet Issues, a position that she's held since May of 2001. And her meeting was part of our ongoing efforts to promote dialogue between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Government. We've long held that that kind of dialogue is the best way to resolve the longstanding issues with respect to Tibet. And of course, that includes trying to help deal with the consequences of some of the recent violence there.

I think you all may have seen that Under Secretary Dobriansky had an op-ed in a major newspaper here in Washington today, and I think that outlines, again, the basic ideas behind our policies. She is looking to meet with him and to hear from him about what kinds of discussions have been going on between his representatives and the Government of China, and also to try and see what she might be able to do to help him in encouraging that dialogue and seeing that it move forward.

QUESTION: How would this process -- how would the meeting, in fact, take this process in bringing about some reconciliation between Beijing and Dalai Lama a step forward?

MR. CASEY: Well, of course, we want to hear from him about his ideas and what he believes might be the next appropriate steps in this. We are certainly going to, of course, also continue to have discussions with the Government of China about this. And you've heard both in our public statements as well as in our private discussions with Chinese officials we've strongly encouraged them to reach out to the Dalai Lama and to his representatives to be able to have the kind of dialogue that would reduce tensions and help lead to a resolution of some of these differences.

QUESTION: Any indications, Tom, whether the -- whether there'll be any resumption of the Sino-Tibetan dialogue, (inaudible) which six rounds have been held? And there have been a lot of, I mean, calls from the White House, from the State Department and from many in the U.S. for such a resumption.

MR. CASEY: Well, we'd certainly like to see that dialogue resume. As you point out, it is something that has gone on in the past, and we think it's the best way to be able to manage and deal with the problems in Tibet. But I'm not in a position at this point to tell you that there's any commitments made that I'm aware of to resume that kind of high-level discussion.

Yeah, Elise.

QUESTION: New topic?

QUESTION: May I just follow one more quickly?

MR. CASEY: Sure, Goyal.

QUESTION: Since, Tom, France is calling for independent and also so are the people of Tibet, and -- but there's a mixture of views and inside China because they don't get everything about outside free world. And my question is that this is not the first time that you have been meeting Dalai Lama. It has been many times, including the President at the White House. What Dalai Lama has been saying, actually -- independent or more human rights, autonomy, or what?

MR. CASEY: Well, the Dalai Lama's public statements mirror the private statements he's made to us. He's not calling for independence for Tibet. He's calling for dialogue with Chinese authorities to be able to help resolve many of these outstanding questions, including peoples' rights to practice their religion freely, to observe their cultural traditions freely, and to be able to otherwise enjoy some basic civil liberties.

Yeah, Elise.

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(The briefing was concluded at 1:13 p.m.)