U.S. and Hong Kong (2005)

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing

Friday, March 4, 2005
12:40 p.m. EST

Briefer: Richard Boucher, Spokesman

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QUESTION: Readout (inaudible) on the telephone conversation between the Secretary of State and the Foreign Minister of China?

MR. BOUCHER: The Secretary did talk to the Foreign Minister of China this morning, early this morning Washington time. They talked about a couple of issues, talked about six-party talks, of course, an area of interest to both of us, talked about the cross-strait situation and talked about human rights issues.

QUESTION: Did she raise the issue of the anti-cessation law that's going to be discussed this weekend?

MR. BOUCHER: That's been a subject of interest to us and one that we have discussed, I think, with the Chinese, but it didn't really come up in conversation today.

QUESTION: What about the arms embargo? Did that come up in this conversation?

MR. BOUCHER: Again, that's not a matter of U.S.-China so much as U.S.-E.U., so it's not -- did not come up. This was a conversation about a couple of particular subjects today.

QUESTION: Any comment on Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian warned that he might pass an anti-cessation* law to counter the anti-cessation law?

MR. BOUCHER: I hadn't seen that statement, but I think you all know that our very strongly held views that we've repeated many times is that neither side should take any unilateral action to try to define the outcome or to otherwise change the situation. We've encouraged dialogue between the two sides and we'll continue to take that position with both.

QUESTION: And also, President -- Chinese President Hu Jintao said this morning that -- try to send some goodwill, said that the Chen Shui-bian meeting with opposition party leader will ease the tension across the strait. Do you suggest any way in this moment for both sides to ease the tension before they pass the anti-cessation law?

MR. BOUCHER: Again, I would say we've always encouraged dialogue, but as far as specific steps to ease tension, how they can do that, how they might get to a dialogue, a lot of that is very much in their hands.

Sir.

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QUESTION: Mr. Chavez is saying that he will cut the Venezuelan oil to the U.S. and he's building a new relationship with China and India regarding the energy. Are you concerned in a way that in the future the Venezuelan oil could be diverted to these markets and create a situation here in the U.S.?

MR. BOUCHER: I'm not going to speculate on Venezuelan oil at this point or where it might be marketed or what might happen in world oil markets. I realize these statements have been made a number of times. I'll leave it to other people to decide what to make of it.

Okay. Back to China?

QUESTION: At the National People's Congress yesterday, President Hu Jintao said the four new points, suggestion on Taiwan policy, where he said both sides can talk on a more equal basis, and he suggested more direct air links and new elements, if you read Chinese. But do you have any comments or anybody is following that, or is that encouraging or --

MR. BOUCHER: Yes, we follow these things. We're certainly very interested. But no, I don't have any particular comment on those specific statements. We always encourage dialogue. We encourage the parties to look for ways to resolve issues in cross-strait relations peacefully. But we'll leave it to them in terms of some of these statements and the initiatives they want to take.

QUESTION: Change of subject. Richard, there has been some concerns in Hong Kong over the erosion, further erosion of democratic rights with the impending resignation of Tung Chee-hwa. Is the United States going to say anything about it?

MR. BOUCHER: U.S. policy has consistently been to support the aspirations of the Hong Kong people for democracy. Whatever decisions are made there, we think there should be continued movement in the direction specified by the Basic Law and in the direction desired by the Hong Kong people, which is democracy.

Said.

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(The briefing was concluded at 1:15 p.m.)