Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The US “kept Taiwan in mind” during US President Barack Obama’s recent meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and rejected any Chinese request that would have caused harm to Taiwan in negotiating the text of the two presidents’ Joint Statement, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt said yesterday.

Saying that China came into the negotiations on the joint statement with the intention of trying to “break new ground,” Burghardt said the US managed to make it a constructive statement “that in no way violate[d] any of Taiwan’s interests.”

During Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) recent state visit to the US, US President Barack Obama arranged both a state banquet and a private dinner for Hu. However, the editorials of the leading US media outlets were largely cold toward Hu.

An editorial published in the New York Times on Jan. 17 stated that: “State dinners and 21-gun salutes are ephemeral. What will earn China respect as a major power is if it behaves responsibly. That must be Mr. Obama’s fundamental message.”