Taipei, June 15 (CNA) U.S. policy on Taiwan's participation in international organizations has been consistent over the last thirty years, and the U.S. continues to insist that Taiwan should be allowed to participate in various ways, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt said Friday.
"Taiwan's being excluded from organizations that require the status of a sovereign state has been, from the beginning, the U.S. policy, " said Burghardt in a roundtable meeting with local press in the middle of his regular visit to Taiwan.
"The U.S. view on Taiwan's membership in the U.N. organizations has been consistent in 1979, 1982 and now, " he stressed.
However, the U.S. has also been the leading voice in supporting Taiwan's participation in organizations that do not require such status, he said, adding that "there are ways in which Taiwan can participate, in even the U.N. organization, in terms of expert participation and observership."
"We are strongly in favor of that. And we strongly oppose games that are played with a nomenclature in order to exclude Taiwan from participating is these organizations, " he said.
Responding to a question from the media on China's oppression of Taiwan in the participation of international organizations, Burghardt said the U.S. "has raised the issue with Beijing and will continue to do so."
As for China's response, "you can probably guess, " he said.
Burghardt has met President Chen Shui-bian, Legislative Speaker Wang Jyng-ping, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung, and Foreign Minister James Huang during his visit, which he described as "the standard operating procedure" for the U.S. in countries all over the world in the run up to an election.
He is scheduled to meet Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh and Kuomintang (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou Saturday.
Burghardt was the director of the AIT's Taipei office from 1999 to 2001. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, the U.S. consul general in Shanghai, and was a staff member at the National Security Council in Washington. Currently he also serves as the Director of East-West Seminars at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.