[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 11 (Thursday, January 19, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E140]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 REGARDING THE TAIWAN-MAINLAND CHINA RELATIONS UNDER PREMIER LIEN CHAN

                                 ______


                            HON. BOB FRANKS

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 19, 1995

  Mr. FRANKS of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring to my 
colleagues' attention to an excellent article by Dr. Winston L. Yang, 
chairman of the department of Asian studies at Seton Hall University in 
South Orange, NJ, discusses the Taiwan-Mainland China relations under 
Premier Lien Chan of Taiwan.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my hope that my colleagues will refer to this 
article when issues related to the future of Taiwan and the Republic of 
China are debated on the House floor.
  The article follows:

        Taiwan-Mainland China Relations Under Premier Lien Chan

                          (By Winston L. Yang)

       Since his appointment as Premier of the Republic of China 
     (ROC) on Taiwan in early 1993, Lien Chan has been advocating 
     more people-to-people exchanges between Taiwan and Mainland 
     China in the media, culture and art, economy and finance, and 
     science and technology. He attaches special importance to the 
     free exchange of information between the two sides of the 
     Taiwan Straits to promote better understanding and 
     cooperation in these fields. Lien calls upon the Communist 
     authorities to leave behind the ``It's you or me'' zero-sum 
     conflict, and to join the ROC in creating a ``win-win'' 
     situation. A win-win policy is the best guarantee, in his 
     view, for achieving national reconciliation and eventual 
     reunification.
       Lien Chan has repeatedly stressed that the ROC is entitled 
     to enjoy international recognition prior to reunification. 
     The ROC's decision to participate in the U.N. is not intended 
     to create a permanent split between the two sides. On the 
     contrary, the ROC's membership in this world body would 
     increase its confidence in the principle of reunification of 
     China and trigger more active measures to pursue eventual 
     reunion. The Chinese Communists would be enlightened if they 
     would turn to the case of East and West Germany, which were 
     coexisting members of the United Nations and later unified. 
     North and South Korea serve as another example of full 
     participation by a divided country in the United Nations and 
     as solid evidence that separated political entities can 
     simultaneously belong to an international organization. The 
     ROC's efforts to participate in the United Nations must be 
     carried out in line with the principle of a unified China, 
     and will, Lien Chan believes, have positive effects on 
     eventual reunification.
       Reversing separate foreign and mainland policies 
     independent of each other, Premier Lien has established links 
     between the two. Taiwan has taken a number of actions to 
     improve relations with Peking, including the renunciation of 
     the use of force to achieve national reunification and the 
     lifting of extensive restrictions on people-to-people 
     exchanges. But until and unless the mainland responds 
     positively to Taipei's good-will overtures, the ROC will not 
     initiate official links and formal negotiations with the 
     mainland. Peking must first halt its efforts to isolate 
     Taipei internationally and renounce the use of force against 
     Taiwan.
       The Premier has obviously injected new and innovative ideas 
     into the ROC's established policy toward the mainland. Taiwan 
     has demonstrated a new sense of pragmatism and flexibility, 
     which has won broad support both at home and abroad.
       While maintaining a firm stand on the principles of the 
     Mainland China policy, Lien's pragmatism is well reflected in 
     his approach to the 1993 Koo-Wang talks. In view of the 
     growing problems arising from the contacts and exchanges 
     between Taiwan and the mainland in the early 1990s, the ROC 
     Government established the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and 
     a ``private'' Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) to resolve 
     emerging difficulties. The SEF has been authorized to make 
     contacts and conduct negotiations on non-political issues of 
     mutual concern with its Chinese Communist counterpart, the 
     Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS). 
     Encouraged by the Premier and President Lee, the chairman of 
     SEF, Koo Chen-foo, reached four agreements with his mainland 
     counterpart, Wang Tao-han, the ARATS chairman, in their 
     meetings in Singapore in April 1993. However, a number of 
     Taiwan independence advocates and DPP leaders firmly opposed 
     these agreements and initiated actions in both Taiwan and 
     Singapore to block their signing. Keenly aware of the 
     importance of these agreements to any future improvement in 
     Taiwan-mainland exchanges, the pragmatic Premier, despite his 
     strong anti-Communist stand, rejected the opposition, 
     clearing the way for the signing of these historic 
     agreements, which are the first such accords between Taiwan 
     and the mainland since 1949. In August 1994, the Premier 
     allowed both sides to meet in Taipei and again encouraged 
     Taipei's representatives to reach important agreements with 
     the mainland's delegates.