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

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Sean McCormack, Spokesman
Washington, DC
May 20, 2008

12:08 p.m. EDT

MR. MCCORMACK: Good afternoon, everybody, or nearly afternoon. I have a couple of things to start off with. We'll put these out in paper form afterwards. The first has to do with the inauguration of Ma Ying-jeou as President of Taiwan. This is a statement from me:

We congratulate Ma Ying-jeou on his inauguration. We look forward to working with Taiwan's new leaders and maintaining the vibrancy in our economic and people-to-people relationship. We welcome initiatives to reduce tension in the Taiwan Strait. As President Bush said after the March vote, "The election provides a fresh opportunity for both sides to reach out and engage one another in peacefully resolving their differences."

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: I appreciated your statements on Ma Ying-jeou's inauguration, make our jobs easier.

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: Just a quick follow-up. So do you expect --

MR. MCCORMACK: I figured that it might. Yeah.

QUESTION: (Laughter.) Appreciate that. Do you expect this to be a new era in the U.S.-Taiwan relationship as well cross-Strait relations?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, I don't have anything to add beyond the statement I've read. And I want to hear from the rest of you how I've made your jobs easier as well. (Laughter.) Feel free to speak up. Feel free to --

QUESTION: (Inaudible) offer you -- (laughter) --

MR. MCCORMACK: Feel free to speak up, make the offer. I'm not seeing any takers here.

Okay. Anything else?

QUESTION: You made things easier the other day by putting the list of countries in alphabetic order. (Laughter.)

MR. MCCORMACK: There we are. A small example.

QUESTION: There you go.

MR. MCCORMACK: A demonstration of attention to detail on our part.

QUESTION: Indeed, indeed.

QUESTION: An update on relief to China and Burma -- Myanmar?

MR. MCCORMACK: We have -- I think -- let me check the figures here. I think we're up to 36 total flights having gone into Rangoon and the total amount of aid to date has approximate -- is approximately about 19 million. The figure I have here is $19,150,000. It continues to increase with each flight.

In terms of China, we will have on Thursday -- at least it's schedule to land -- a C -- another C-17 flight. This will be carrying search-and-rescue equipment as well as some experts who can assist the Chinese Government in their efforts in the affected area.

QUESTION: Nothing more on the DART team for --

MR. MCCORMACK: No, nothing -- nothing new.

QUESTION: One thing about -- Assistant Secretary Hill was fairly upbeat when he talked to reporters yesterday after his meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, and he said that he expected to soon go to China and Russia for more consultations. Has that trip been set up? Do you have any dates yet on that?

MR. MCCORMACK: I don't have any specifics on his travel schedule. Our focus, really, however, is on getting -- in getting a declaration from the North Koreans, which has not yet been forthcoming -- not yet been handed over by the North Koreans to the Chinese, and then analyzing that and making a judgment about the declaration. So we're taking the Secretary's views, we're taking this step by step, and the next step here is the North Koreans providing a declaration. At that point, we'll have a basis for some prognosis about the way forward, you know, if the process will move forward.

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR. MCCORMACK: Okay. Thanks.

(The briefing was concluded at 12:17 p.m.)