The United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, reiterated the one-China policy of the US government in a speech to the Asia Society Monday evening in New York.
Powell said the US government continued to insist that mainland China solve its differences with Taiwan peacefully.
The bilateral relationship between the US and China had come a long way in just a year. The two countries explored new promising areas and their cooperation ranged from combating terrorism and trade liberalization to promoting stability in Southeast Asia, said Powell.
He added that the US wants to work with China to make decisions and take actions befitting a global leader. "We ask China to collaborate with us and our allies and friends to promote stability" worldwide, Power said.
The Secretary of State also said that the US will not yield its strategic position in Asia. "Though we will constantly review our posture and consider sensible adjustments, we will maintain our forward deployed forces in the Asia Pacific region in the specific future."
Powell said the United States "wholeheartedly" supports South Korea's sunshine policy and remains committed to the framework agreement signed between the US and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in 1994.
The agreement involves the replacement of DPRK's graphite-moderated reactors with light water reactors, the normalization of political and economic relations between the US and the DPRK, the de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula, the guaranteeing of the peninsula's peace and security and the enforcement of the nuclear non-proliferation regime.
(People's Daily June 12, 2002)
