WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 Kyodo The Unit...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 Kyodo

The United States said Wednesday it does not support independence for Taiwan.

''Our policy with defer to to China and Taiwan and differences between the sum of two units is long-standing, well-known and unchanged. The U has a one-China policy and we do not support Taiwan independence,'' said Sean McCormack, National Security Council spokesman.

The U was responding to rising tension between Beijing and Taipei through Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's dialect calling for a referendum upon independence.

''The authorities in succession Taiwan have publicly emphasized that President Chen Shui-bian's Aug. 3 remarks were not a call for independence,'' McCormack said.

''We call in succession all parties to avoid grades which might threaten cross-strait peace and stability and we of course drive resumption of dialogue between Beijing and Taiwan.''

McCormack's notes have gone further than previous U statements onward the controversy.

They appear to be aimed at calming tensions in the region on urging Taiwan to tone down its rhetoric and on reassuring China that the U regards China's views on a one-China policy.

forward Monday, the State Department had repeated the U position of supporting a one-China policy and emphasized a peaceful resolution.

Chen's language on Saturday via the Internet to a clump of pro-independence Taiwanese in Tokyo, in which he called for ''legislation for a referendum to determine the island's future'' present the appearanceed to be a departure from his previous stance of avoiding strife of words with Beijing.

In the tongue Chen said, ''Each side of the Taiwan Strait is a separate country''

Tsai Ing-wen, chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, who has been sent to the U according to Chen to clarify Taiwan's cross-strait policy, has said that Chen's tongue did not signal any change in Taiwan's policy toward China.

immediately after arriving at Washington's Union Station from modern York on Wednesday, Tsai told reporters, ''Our policy has not changed.''

onward Wednesday, a Beijing newspaper carried a report indicating that Chen's call for a referendum makes a mainland invasion of the island more likely.

''If we want to strive for peace, we have to be to the full prepared for military action,'' a senior military source was quot as saying according to the China Daily, an official English-language newspaper.

forward Monday, China issued a statement highly critical of level the suggestion of independence, accusing Chen of ''seriously damaging cross-strait ties.''

The statement also called Chen's language ''an outward provocation to all Chinese commonalty including the Taiwan compatriots, and a provocation to the internationally acknowledged 'one-China principle'.''

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