The United States sticks to the one-China policy based on the three Sino-US joint communiqués, and "we do not support Taiwan independence," US Ambassador to China Clark Randt said in Hong Kong on Tuesday.  

Addressing a luncheon, Clark Randt said the Taiwan issue currently "is getting some attention," but "regardless what you might read in the newspapers, our leadership in Washington understands the importance of our relationship with China."

US President George W. Bush "has been steadfast that we have the same position with respect to Taiwan, the same as the six previous administrations," said the ambassador.

"That's the way that has been and that's the way it is," he noted.

Clark Randt also said the Bush administration opposes the Congress bills of imposing a 27.5 percent tariff on Chinese-made goods or repealing permanent normal trade relations with China.

He said President Bush "wants a candid, cooperative and constructive relationship with China," which is "emerging as a responsible major player on the global economic and political scene."

"These were his (Bush's) instruction to me when I assumed the position well over two years ago, and they are still the same today," Clark Randt, who is on a visit here, said.

The ambassador said China now is a country that is actively engaged with the international community. For instance, "we are also having constructive talks with China on such critical global issues as the reconstruction of Afghanistan and Iraq environmental protection, sustainable development, clean energy, climate change, drug trafficking, trafficking in persons, HIV-AIDS and SARS," he said.

A major lynchpin of the US-China relationship is the important, broad ranging and mutually beneficial bilateral economic and trade relationship, Clark Randt noted.

China has been the fastest growing export market of the United States in the recent two years. In 2002, China was the United States' 7th largest export market, and is likely to be the 6th largest this year, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Regarding the growing trade imbalance between the two countries, Clark Randt said "it has given rise in Washington to questions of basic fair play." He said US Congress has recently introduced a number of bills over the issue."

There is a saying recently that the current US trade deficit to China was relevant to China's policy on its RMB currency, which is unfair to other countries' export. But many, including some US experts, deny the concepts, saying US trade deficit to China was mainly caused by the decline of the competitiveness of US enterprises and that American products are becoming more and more expensive, he said.

Clark Randt said the US government continues to work with China to try to handle the issue, so as to "ensure that our economic and trade relations benefit the people and workers of both countries."

(Source: Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2003)