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504 Cannon House Office Building · Washington, DC 20515
For Immediate Release Fact
and Fiction in Our One China Policy One
of the strangest pages in the book of American foreign policy is the
carefully guarded fiction that there is but one China.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC, “Mainland” or
“Red” China) and the Republic of China (ROC or “Taiwan”)
are, and have been for more than half a century, two distinct
nations by any reasonable measure.
They have separate and independent governments, separate
economies, largely separate cultures, and—most importantly—very
different political philosophies. And yet we continue to pretend that they are one nation.
In
1945 the island of Taiwan, sometimes called Formosa, was liberated
from 50 years of Japanese rule.
Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party)
used it as a base of operations and support in the war against Mao
Tse Tung’s Communists. When
they lost that war, some two million nationalists fled the Mainland
for Taiwan. Since then
there have been two Chinas, both—until only recently—claiming
rightful ownership of the whole.
We have seen similar situations in Germany, Korea, and
Vietnam in this century, but only in the case of China has the world
adhered to the obvious falsity that only one nation existed.
Until 1979 the United States recognized only Taiwan.
Since then, we have recognized only Mainland China, though
our relations with Taiwan continue to be very friendly. Even
though Taiwan has essentially relinquished its claim to the
Mainland, the “One China Policy” has continued because the PRC
persists in calling Taiwan a “renegade province”—and enforced
their view with the threat of military aggression.
When Taiwan’s President Lee Teng-hui suggested in July of
1999 that negotiations between Taiwan and the PRC should be
conducted on a “state-to-state” basis, the Mainland warned that
such a policy could bring “monumental disaster” to Taiwan. Because
of the persistent threat from the Mainland, Taiwan has lived for
more than 50 years in a constant state of crisis.
Ironically, this has mobilized the Taiwanese to become one of
the most productive and free democracies in Asia.
Taiwan’s 22 million people have decided that free elections
and a thriving free-market economy are their best defense against
their colossal neighbor of 1.25 billion people. For
decades the Kuomintang ruled Taiwan with an iron fist, citing the
Red Chinese threat as the reason for imposing martial law.
The Taiwanese economy grew rapidly, despite high military
expenditures and cultural conflict between the native
Japanese-influenced Taiwanese and the ruling Mainlanders.
Today, Taiwan is one of our major trading partners and one of
the world’s leading economies.
A free, multiparty democracy has replaced the old top-down
government. The freedom
that marks today’s Taiwan was in full evidence when President Lee
said last year, “I now refer to my fellow citizens as ‘New
Taiwanese,’ meaning those who are willing to fight for the
prosperity and survival of their country, regardless of when they or
their forebears arrived on Taiwan and regardless of their provincial
heritage or native language.” Since
the days of the Opium Wars and the later Boxer Rebellion, relations
with China have never been simple. As the move toward Permanent
Normal Trade Relations and admittance to the World Trade
Organization occupy our relations with the Mainland, we must not
forget to support Taiwan’s democratic government, free-market
economy, and security needs. The
PRC’s threatening posture towards Taiwan is wrong, but not easily
stopped. We must
continue to support Taiwan as we did recently in Congress with the
Taiwan Security Enhancement Act (passed on February 1, 2000). Taiwan
still lives in fear of its neighbor.
Taiwan still remains unrecognized as a nation by all but 29
countries. Taiwan
remains disenfranchised at the United Nations.
But as relations with the Mainland gradually improve, and as
a new generation prepares to take over in China, perhaps one day
soon Taiwan will be able to stand up proudly and take its place on
the world stage. # # # |
