Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) Taiwan hopes and expects Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to the United States (U.S.) later this month will be "surprise-free" and not jeopardize Taiwan's national interests, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said Tuesday.
"A joint press conference (of the visit) is probably inevitable, but we neither hope for nor expect a joint statement or a communique, " said Bruce J.D. Linghu, director-general of the MOFA's Department of North American Affairs, at a press briefing, referring to Hu's meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Jan. 19.
Taiwan and the U.S. have used a "surprise-free" approach to engage each other to ensure mutual trust, Linghu said, adding that while Taiwan and the U.S. were "literally allies without official ties" that shared same values, sacrificing Taiwan's interests would mean sacrificing U.S. interests as well.
Raymond Burghardt, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) , a quasi-official U.S. organization authorized to handle relations with Taiwan in the absence of official ties, is scheduled to brief President Ma Ying-jeou and other government officials in late January after Hu's visit, Linghu said.
The Chinese side could raise the issue of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan during the visit, the MOFA official said, but the U.S. has maintained a consistent policy on the issue over the years.
According to Jason Yuan, Taiwan's representative to the U.S., Washington has recently briefed Taiwan on Hu's visit and has agreed that in the future it would brief Taiwan before and immediately after important U.S.-China meetings.
Yuan added that Washington has also given the assurance that it would not allow Hu's visit to jeopardize U.S. relations with any other country.
Taiwan expressed disappointment over a China-U.S. joint statement issued in November 2009 during President Obama's visit to Beijing.
In the statement, the two countries underscored "the importance of the Taiwan issue in U.S.-China relations."
China further emphasized that "the Taiwan issue concerns China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, " and expressed the hope that the U.S. would "honor its relevant commitments and appreciate and support the Chinese side's position on this issue." (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls