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Home The News News Idealism shapes US foreign policy, AIT director says

Idealism shapes US foreign policy, AIT director says

American Institute in Taiwan Director William Stanton said yesterday US policy toward China was shaped by idealism and that the US will not walk away from Taiwan.

“From a Machiavellian point of view, the easy thing would be to just not sell arms to Taiwan any more, simple, but we go on doing that,” Stanton said at a Taipei Salon lecture hosted by the Lung Yingtai Cultural Foundation.

In a speech titled “The Paradox of America,” Stanton said it was a myth that US foreign policy is driven only by self-interest.

Stanton said that adherence to idealist principles was one of the things that made US foreign policy so difficult to understand.

“It would be much easier if we did everything from the point of view of self-interest,” he said.

PRIORITIES


Recalling his experiences at the US Embassy in Beijing, Stanton said he was told by a Chinese think tank that the US is “wasting [its] breath” talking about freedom and religion in China and Tibet, defending Taiwan and selling arms to Taiwan.

Stanton said the Chinese think tank told him that none of those issues were a major priority or in US interests, adding that the US should instead talk about trade between the two countries.

“But the point is actually that America does care passionately about those things,” Stanton said.

TRANSFORMATION


In his speech, Stanton praised the achievements of Taiwan, saying that Taiwan’s own efforts and policies had transformed it from a poor country with a military dictatorship to a developed democracy with technological leadership in the world.

“The United States can’t walk away from [Taiwan] and still remain the United States,” he said.

NEGOTIATIONS


After the forum, Stanton was asked whether the US would resume the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) negotiations with Taiwan.

In response, Stanton said only that he hoped the US would renew focus on the talks and move forward, particularly after the recently signed cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement.

Stanton said the dispute over US beef imports to Taiwan was still an issue in trade relations with Taiwan, but added that the US had not set any precondition for the resumption of the TIFA talks.


Source: Taipei Times - 2010/07/11



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Newsflash

Lead vocalist Freddy Lim of the heavy metal band Chthonic burns a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) flag during a concert at Sing-ling Temple in Puli Township, Nantou County, on Saturday.
Photo: Loa Iok-sin, Taipei Times.


More than 1,000 people from across Taiwan and overseas rocked the sleepy town of Puli (埔里) in the mountains of Nantou County on Saturday night for the first heavy metal concert to be held at one of the nation’s temples.

A little after sunset, music accompanied by waves of loud shouting could be heard coming from the parking lot of the Sing-ling Temple. Unlike the traditional music one normally hears at a temple during religious festivities, this was the sound of the bass, electric guitar and keyboards, and the shouting did not come from the faithful, but from fans of the local heavy metal band Chthonic.