U.S. Tells China Taiwan Remarks a Mistake - Xinhua BEIJING -- The United States told China U.S. President George W. Bush had made a mistake when he called Taiwan a country in a speech last week, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. Washington told China the U.S. government has not changed its Taiwan policy and said it would not refer to Taiwan in that way again, Xinhua quoted a foreign ministry spokeswoman as saying. Reports in Taiwanese newspapers on Friday said Bush called the island the "Republic of Taiwan" and a "country" in a speech to diplomats and business executives on Thursday. Calling Taiwan a country would threaten to compromise a major pillar of Sino-U.S. relations, which were set up in 1979 largely based on a U.S. nod to the "One China" Principle, which states that Taiwan is a part of China, Reuters reported. Beijing, which regards the island as a wayward province to be reunited with the mainland by force if necessary, asked for an explanation on Saturday of why Bush had referred to Taiwan as a country. Taiwan's ***United Daily News ***quoted a U.S. official as saying Bush's labeling Taiwan as a republic was a "slip of the tongue" and indicated no shift in U.S. policy. Bush was referring to the entry late last year and this year of China and Taiwan, respectively, into the World Trade Organization, reports said. The English-language ***Taipei Times ***newspaper quoted Bush as saying it was "important to recognize and to welcome both countries, both the Republic of Taiwan, and of course China, into the World Trade Organization." The Taiwan issue has often caused rough patches in bilateral ties and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan have angered Beijing. Last month an editorial in the official ***China Daily *** newspaper said Beijing felt "betrayed" after a U.S. decision to allow Taiwanese Defense Minister Tang Yiau-Ming into the United States for talks with Defense officials and warned of a setback in Sino-U.S. ties. But foreign ministry officials later confirmed both sides were moving ahead with plans for a scheduled visit by Chinese Vice-President Hu Jintao to the United States in late April.