U.S. and Hong Kong (2004)

State Department Briefing, January 2, 2004

Following is a transcript of the briefing:

U.S. Department of State
Daily Press Briefing
Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman
Washington, DC
January 2, 2004

1:35 p.m. EST

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: On Taiwan. There is some confusion in Taiwan about what the official U.S. position might be on a proposed referendum there. Could you clarify, has the U.S. Administration made a decision to oppose any such referendum?

MR. ERELI: I'm not going to say anything new today that we haven't said in the past on the subject of a referendum or other unilateral moves to change the status. I would just go back to our previous transcripts. If there's confusion, I'm not in a position to clarify things at this point. I think our position hasn't changed. You know, there's a lot being reported about what Taiwan may or may not do, and the point, our point, is that dialogue is the way to go. Unilateral actions are something we oppose, and I think that's pretty clear.

QUESTION: But do you consider a referendum, the proposed referendum, as something that would change the status quo? Is that your position now?

MR. ERELI: I'm not in a position to comment on what the latest form -- on the latest form of the referenda that's being discussed. That's a moving target, frankly, and it's not something that I really want to comment on every day because the referenda that's being discussed seems to change every day. I think the point that we make consistently, and that is not going to change, is that referenda that are aimed at changing the status quo are something that we oppose, and we believe that dialogue is the way to solve this issue. And that's what we are encouraging both sides to engage in.

QUESTION: But as you know, the Government of Taiwan insists that this would not be a referendum aimed at changing the status quo.

MR. ERELI: Yeah. Well --

QUESTION: And, in fact, would --

MR. ERELI: I don't really have more to say on the subject.

Yes, Joel.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: On New Year Day, there were 100,000 Hong Kong people who demonstrated for a protest. Do you have anything on that?

MR. ERELI: On Hong Kong. We believe that events over the past year, including the January 1st march, have shown the people of Hong Kong take seriously their role in the democratic process. The longstanding policy of the United States is that the Hong Kong Government should move toward electoral reform and universal suffrage, as provided for in the basic law, and we believe that continued democratization will contribute to the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

(The briefing was concluded at 2:15 p.m.)

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