President Lee Teng-hui stated today that the ROC has completed bilateral negotiations with those WTO member nations that requested such talks. "We earnestly hope that the WTO will only evaluate the ROC's economic conditions, as they consider our membership in the WTO, and not get side-tracked on the issue of the Chinese mainland's admission to the WTO," he said.
Karen Elliott House, President of the International Group of Dow Jones & Company, together with Nancy Smith, editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal's Editorial Page and Russell Flannery, the journal's correspondent in Taiwan, had an exclusive interview with Vice President Lien Chan, and met with President Lee at the Presidential Office this morning. Ding Mou-shih, Senior Advisor to the President, and Lin Bih-jaw, Deputy Secretary-General to the President, were also present.
Ms. House, who had an interview with President Lee two years ago, said that she has been greatly impressed by the ROC's progress, particularly in the establishment of its democratic systems over the past nearly a decade.
During the meeting, Ms. House also consulted with President Lee on the TMD issue. "It would be unreasonable to ask the ROC not to adopt appropriate defensive countermeasures, especially when it is severely threatened by the Chinese mainland's recent efforts to deploy large numbers of missiles on the other side of the Taiwan Strait," the President said.
He stressed that if the Chinese mainland had not shown a penchant for intimidating us with missile attacks, it would not be necessary for the ROC to participate in the TMD system. "If the ROC does participate in the system, it will add to the strategic value of the TMD system, as a whole, helping to maintain peace and promoting stability in the Asia-Pacific region," he said.