Stanton’s advice to Taiwan on South China Sea not official: AIT

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Taipei, Sept. 15 (CNA) The suggestion by a former director of the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan that Taiwan abandon its current approach to making territorial claims in the South China Sea represented his own views, the office said Monday.

AIT spokesman Mark Zimmer told CNA that William A. Stanton, who was the U.S.’s top representative in Taiwan from 2009 to 2012, did not represent the U.S. government and was speaking in his own capacity.

Stanton argued in a recent speech that because of the risks of sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea, Taiwan should consider abandoning its claims based on the “nine-dash line.”

Both Taiwan and China use the line, which encompasses most of the South China Sea and extends as far south as just off the coast of East Malaysia, to claim the sea’s islets and waters as their own.

Read more: http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201409150039.aspx

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