[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 192 (Tuesday, December 5, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2293-E2294]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE ADMINISTRATION NEEDS TO SUPPORT TAIWAN
______
HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN
of new york
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, December 5, 1995
Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, recently A.M. Rosenthal of the New York
Times wrote two thought provoking articles regarding Taiwan. He points
out how the administration's apparent weakness in supporting our
democratic friends there plays into the hands of the dictators in
Beijing.
There are a number of territorial disputes in Asia. One of the most
contentious is the ownership and future of the island of Taiwan.
Regretably, short of an early collapse of the dictatorship in Beijing,
the 45-year-old stalemate over the issue shows no signs of an immediate
resolution.
Taiwan is a free democracy. A nation where people can express their
thoughts and practice their religious beliefs. Through the long years
it has remained a loyal friend and steadfast ally of the United States.
The Republic of China is one of Asia's economic miracles featuring a
strong and growing economy with less than 1-percent unemployment. From
our perspective this is the type of free and democratic society we need
to support in the region and around the world. On the other hand we
have the People's Republic of China. The Beijing leadership has
repeatedly proven itself over the years to be an oppressive
dictatorship with little regard for human and religious rights, much
less political freedom. Its military fought against ours in Korea,
supported the Communists in North Vietnam, and currently ships weapons
of mass destruction to terrorist nations in the Middle East.
For the past 10 years whenever an effort was attempted by the
Congress to respond to Beijing's egregious behavior we were told, that
there is a political transition period underway in China and if we took
any substantive action we would be strengthening the hands of the
hardliners.
And so for the last decade, whenever the Congress attempted to
respond to China's export of products made by slave labor, we were told
by the State Department to back off.
When we raised the issue of the Communist's repression of religious
and political thought, the State Department told us that economic
liberalization will bring about political pluralism.
Accordingly, Beijing has never paid a price for its unfair trade
practices, arms proliferation, repression in occupied Tibet, massive
military buildup, the recent aggression in the Spratly Islands, its
disregard for intellectual property rights, its illegal detention of
Harry Wu, an American citizen, and its threatening military exercise
off the cost of Taiwan. On the contrary, the State Department believes
that we need to further soften our approach to Beijing.
I am all for working peacefully and negotiating quietly with the
Chinese. But time and time again, the State Department has failed to
bring home the bacon. Constructive engagement cannot be just a one way
endeavor. The State Department needs to recognize this and adjust its
course.
Considering all these facts, the Congress is compelled to ask if
Taiwan's time has come to be recognized by the world's community of
nations. And if so, what can this body do to help
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the free people of Taiwan. Taiwan leadership has repeatedly asked for
our help in their quest for their people to have the last word in their
own future.
Let me say that now is the time to help our friends on the island of
Taiwan. We have been waiting far too long to respond to their
aspirations and hope.
Accordingly, I ask that the full text of A.M. Rosenthal's articles be
printed in the Record at this point.
[From the New York Times, Nov. 28, 1995]
Yes, There Is a Taiwan
(By A.M. Rosenthal)
Taipei, Taiwan.--The trucks move day and night through the
streets of Taiwan like creatures alive and wild with their
own energy--shouting and singing through their loudspeakers,
denouncing, trumpeting, cajoling, forbidding escape or the
succor of a moment's silence.
The loudspeakers, mounted fore, aft and atop, deliver a
gigantic rolling headache. But they also deliver the sound of
democracy, to a small country new to it, and to a huge
glowering country whose leaders detest the thought of it.
This is campaign time in Taiwan, a free campaign, fought
hard, for the free election of a national legislature. It is
the most important democratic step since 40 years of military
rule ended in 1987 and the democratic process began on this
island--an often-tested missile-distance across the waters
from Communist China.
And next March an even more important election will take
place. The people of the islands will take part in a direct
presidential election--the first direct election of a
national leader in the thousands of years of history of the
Chinese people.
The economic development of Taiwan moves ahead smartly, and
so does its democratic development. That is news of
importance far beyond this island.
Asia has a batch of countries developing economically but
not democratically. Just give Asians a full belly, the
colonial West used to say. Now that is amended: Just give
them a motorbike and big-screen TV.
Taiwan is crowded, its cities are messy and its roadsides
junk-strewn. But politically it is becoming quite handsome, a
living denial of the slur that Chinese are content to live
without political freedom.
Westerners have a way of thinking of Taiwan in relation
only to China and their own interests. Mostly they think
nervously of how furious Beijing will get if the West gives
any acknowledgment or respect to this island that the
Communists say is their own province, now and forever.
The West trembles to breathe a word about allowing Taiwan
to take part in international activities--even helping
refugees. Its skin crawls with fear that Beijing will reduce
the West's right to take part in the China trade and the
privilege of buying from China billions of dollars more in
goods than the West has any hope of ever selling to China.
The worldwide diplomatic blockade that Beijing has created
against Taiwan is not the worst of it. When Beijing thinks
that the substantial movement toward an independent Taiwan is
getting stronger, or sees the horror of democracy rising on
this prosperous island so close to the mainland, the Chinese
Communists mount menacing military operations. No pretense is
made that the exercise and the ugly warnings by top military
men are not aimed at intimidating Taiwan and aborting its
growing fascination with democratic practice. Expect more
threats.
The people of the island, ethnically Chinese, descend
either from families that have lived here for centuries or
from immigrants who fled to Taiwan with Nationalist army when
it was defeated by the Communists in 1949.
The ruling party is the Kuomintang, a mellowed offspring of
the hard-handed party of Chiang Kai-shek. It is headed by
President Lee Teng-hui. Mr. Lee gave Beijing a heart attack
recently by visiting his American alma mater, Cornell
University, Beijing has been trying ever since to give one
apiece to him and the U.S. for such impertinence.
The Kuomintang stands for reunification with the mainland--
some day, when Beijing manages to become non-Communist, and a
convert to human rights. So the KMT is denounced by the New
Party, made up of breakaway KMT hard-liners, as kind of
Confucian Coalition.
The major opposition is the Democratic Progressive Party--
strong for independence, but not ready to invite Communist
attack by making a Taiwan July Fourth Declaration.
Panting for the China trade, the U.S. forbids Taiwan
representatives to set foot in the State Department or White
House. But the weeks of democratic campaigning prove that
whether Beijing and its international business lobby approve
or not, Taiwan has produced a prosperous, growingly
democratic society of its own, separate in political practice
and desire from the mainland.
Or, as it appears on posters around the island: ``Yes,
there is a Taiwan.'' Send in more trucks.
____
[From the New York Times, Dec. 1, 1995]
The Blockades of Taiwan
(By A.M. Rosenthal)
Taipei, Taiwan.--They come almost every day now--the
military threats to this island country from the 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 on 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 non-
member 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 an 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.
Now 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.
____________________