Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), have given a show of unity, holding a joint press conference during Hu’s recent visit to the US. Hu would have been very happy with Obama’s reiteration of a commitment to the US’ “one China” policy, the Three Joint Communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) as a basis for the furthering of US-China relations. Not long before, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had also emphasized that the US would continue “our ‘one China’ policy” based on the TRA and the three communiques. Evidently, the US is keen on letting China understand — and perhaps also passing the information to the government here in Taiwan — that the TRA remains the cornerstone of Washington’s Taiwan policy and that its “one China” policy is not the same thing as China’s “one China” principle.

More than 200 environmental protection activists urged the Changhua County Government yesterday not to obstruct the designation of a belt of intertidal zone along the county’s west coast as a wetland of international importance.

The environmentalists from several civic groups made the call in a protest in front of Changhua County Hall against a NT$400 billion (US$13.76 billion) investment project to build a major petrochemical complex on land close to the estuary of the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪).