[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 191 (Monday, December 4, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TAIWAN DESERVES A U.N. SEAT

                                 ______


                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, December 4, 1995

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, A.M. Rosenthal has written a superb article 
on the silly situation that now exists in which the United Nations 
recognizes North Korea but not Taiwan. I have introduced bipartisan 
legislation, House Concurrent Resolution 63, to express the sense of 
congress that this outrage ought to be reversed. I ask for cosponsors 
of the legislation and insert the Rosenthal article for the Record.

                        The Blockades of Taiwan

                          (By A.M. Rosenthal)

       Taipei, Taiwan.--They come almost every day now--the 
     military threats to this island country from Communist 
     Government in Beijing.
       Chinese Army commanders order repeated amphibious landings 
     at the mainland coast nearest the island--the precise kind of 
     operation that would be needed to invade Taiwan--and 
     ``tests'' of missiles in the straits dividing China and the 
     island. In recent days there has been a series of leaked 
     reports that Beijing is considering a naval blockade of 
     Taiwan.
       Nobody knows whether the threats are meant only to frighten 
     all Taiwanese into abandoning any thought of independence, 
     however distant, or whether Beijing is readying its people 
     and the world for an attack. If it does take place it is 
     likely to be in the spring of 1996 before or after Taiwan 
     holds its first direct presidential election.
       But the evidence is that the military command is beginning 
     to operate and plan independently of the civilian leadership 
     in the Politburo.
       This much seems clear from here: The West is operating on 
     the assumption that if it says and does nothing, why, any 
     dangers will vanish in a merciful blip.
       The studious silence arises from the fundamental China 
     policy of the West: Rock no Chinese boat lest Beijing throw 
     easy Western access to the Chinese market overboard.
       The West manages to maintain its silence because a Chinese 
     blockade of Taiwan already exists: the political and 
     diplomatic blockade created by Beijing after it took over the 
     China seat in the U.N. in 1971.
       The government of Taiwan was not only ousted from the U.N. 
     but from the international community. Taiwan, one of the 
     largest trading nations in the world, has been cut off from 
     normal diplomatic and political relations with almost the 
     whole world.
       The U.S. maintains an ``institute'' in Taipei headed by a 
     ``director.'' But no flag is flown outdoors to save Beijing a 
     fit. In Washington, representatives of Taiwan cannot sully 
     the State department or White House by their presence. So 
     far, separate drinking fountains for Taiwanese 
     representatives have not been set up.
       Taiwan is not only barred from the U.N. but from all its 
     many specialized agencies, including those supposed to deal 
     with such universal subjects as health and agriculture--say, 
     AIDS or starvation.
       The blockade is so obsessively enforced that it even 
     excludes aid to refugees. Last year the U.N. appealed for 
     funds for Rwandan refugees, among the most suffering of God's 
     human creatures. Taiwan offered $2 million; refused. The 
     Taiwanese did manage to get their gift accepted--by 
     channeling it through an American committee for Unicef.
       Correspondents from Taiwan are not permitted to enter the 
     U.N. As a former reporter at the U.N., in its early days, I 
     have thought of slipping my pass to a correspondent from 
     Taiwan, to annoy U.N. authorities, but I decided it wouldn't 
     work.
       Before Beijing commanded the U.N., correspondents from 
     nonmember peoples were allowed in. I learned more about North 
     Africa and Indonesia from independence-movement reporters 
     than I ever did from the colonial French or Dutch.
       North Korea and South Korea are members and so were East 
     and West Germany. The Palestine Liberation Organization was 
     given representation at the General Assembly with only a vote 
     lacking.
       But when China decided that any dreams of independence, 
     sovereignty or even dignity that Taiwan might harbor were too 
     dangerous to tolerate, this special apartheid was created for 
     the island. The U.S. and most other U.N. members meekly 
     kissed Beijing's iron slipper.
       That means Taiwan cannot use the U.N. or any normal 
     diplomatic channel to raise an alarm that had to be 
     officially heard about the open military threats from 
     Beijing. If any other country had threatened another so 
     blatantly the case would immediately have been on the U.N. 
     agenda.
       Nor of course most U.N. members, including the U.S., would 
     be paralyzed with economic terror at the very idea of 
     proposing that Taiwan as well as China be represented at the 
     U.N. But perhaps Washington, London, Paris and Tokyo will 
     dredge up enough courage to increase their own diplomatic 
     contacts with Taiwan as a warning to China. Perhaps.
       Until now the Chinese diplomatic blockade and Western 
     submission to it have been merely disgusting. Now they are 
     getting dangerous.

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