Posted on 06/17/2002 1:50:17 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
In recent months U.S. President George W. Bush has sent a number of signals indicating that he respects and appreciates the fact that Taiwan is a democracy and that the United States will continue to support it.
First, right after the December 2001 legislative election, the White House sent a message of congratulations to Taiwan on its democratic process in choosing the nation's lawmakers. The message was not conditional as was President Bill Clinton’s in March 2000 when Chen Shui-bian was elected president.
Clinton, apparently worried that the election would cause tensions between Taipei and Beijing, sought in that context to pressure Taiwan into negotiating with Beijing. Relations with the mainland clearly took precedence. Bush did not link Taiwan’s democratization with increasing cross-strait tensions. Or perhaps, he felt that Taiwan’s democracy was too important to hold it hostage.
Second, when Bush visited Japan on the first leg of his most recent Asian trip, he addressed the Japanese Diet. He used the occasion to express U.S. support for Taipei. Bush asserted, “America will remember our commitments to the people on Taiwan.” Though Bush’s comments were not headline news, what he said was noticed by the foreign policy elite in Japan, Taiwan and elsewhere, and national leaders — including PRC President Jiang Zemin, whom Bush was going to visit just days later. Various commentators interpreted what Bush said as meaning that U.S. loyalty to Taiwan has increased because of that country's successful democratization, and that his visit to mainland China should not be interpreted otherwise.
Third, while in the mainland, Bush did not mention the “three noes,” that is no to Taiwan independence, no to one China and one Taiwan, and no to Taiwan joining international organizations in which statehood is a requirement for membership. Clinton first stated the three noes during his 1998 visit to the mainland. This was seen as signaling that U.S. relations with China trumped Washington-Taipei ties. Bush also failed to cite America's so-called “strategic partnership” with the PRC, which Clinton had also broached during his 1998 trip. In short, what Bush did not say when he visited the mainland was good for Taiwan.
Fourth, when the U.S. president did talk about U.S.-PRC Taiwan policy, it was readily apparent that he favors the Taiwan Relations Act over the three communique Washington has negotiated with Beijing: the Shanghai Communique of 1972, the Normalization Agreement of 1979 and the August Communique of 1982.
All were designed to promote better U.S. relations with Beijing. The TRA, in contrast, is favorable to Taiwan. It treats Taiwan as having sovereignty and pledges U.S. security assistance to Taiwan.
Fifth, Bush declined to cancel U.S. plans to build a missile defense system, which Beijing vigorously opposes. More poignantly, he refused to say that Taiwan would not be a participant in the U.S. theater missile defense system in Northeast Asia. His reasoning is that Beijing still intimidates Taiwan with missiles, continuing to put more of them within range of the island and that as a sovereign, democratic nation, Taiwan should be protected.
Sixth, the Bush administration has not rescinded promises of weapons sales to Taiwan. In fact, sales are clearly on track. This issue was discussed recently at a rare high-level conference in Florida, which was attended by ROC Defense Minister Tang Yiau-ming and U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The meeting was planned before Bush's Asia trip and took place just after Bush returned from his visit to the mainland. Beijing loudly expressed its displeasure by canceling U.S. Navy port calls in Hong Kong, but this did not elicit any Bush administration regrets.
One might attribute all of this to frays in U.S.-PRC relations. Washington is unhappy about Beijing’s involvement in the proliferation of nuclear weapons, its contacts with and weapons sales to what Washington considers rogue states and its bad human rights record.
Some observers have even said Bush’s “axis of evil” comment, which refers to North Korea, Iran and Iraq, was obliquely aimed at Beijing, which has good relations with all three. It puts the communist leadership on notice. It is also said that the United States is disappointed with Beijing’s help in the war against terrorism, either because it is unable or unwilling to do very much. Still Bush went to the mainland and Washington is expecting a return visit by Jiang as well as a call by his heir apparent Hu Jintao this year. This as well as trade, commercial ties and several other indicators say that U.S.-PRC relations are quite normal if not cordial.
The bottom line then must be: Bush thinks Taiwan is important to the United States, and that forsaking it would fatally wound U.S. Asia policy and finally that Taiwan’s democracy must be preserved. Perhaps he also thinks that Taiwan should be a model for the mainland and, if it were, U.S.-PRC relations would be better.
I thought he was going to offer them government subsidized affordable housing.
That would really anger China. We should also give every Chinese a 1,200 sqft house. It's only fair.
...our enemies are totalitarians, holding a creed of power with no place for human dignity. Now, as then, they seek to impose a joyless conformity, to control every life and all of life.America confronted imperial communism in many different ways -- diplomatic, economic, and military. Yet moral clarity was essential to our victory in the Cold War. When leaders like John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan refused to gloss over the brutality of tyrants, they gave hope to prisoners and dissidents and exiles, and rallied free nations to a great cause.
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