[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 31 (Friday, March 8, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H2032]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            PEACE AND SECURITY IN TAIWAN MUST BE MAINTAINED

  (Mr. FUNDERBURK asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. FUNDERBURK. Mr. Speaker, the absence of effective American 
leadership in East Asia is a major contributing factor to the current 
heightened crisis in the Taiwan Strait. For the past 25 years our 
relationship with the Communist People's Republic of China has been 
contingent upon a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue. Before the 
United States Congress enacted the Taiwan Relations Act, the executive 
branch of all administrations, from Nixon to the present, committed to 
the peaceful resolution on the future of Taiwan.
  The current crisis in the Taiwan Straits seriously jeopardizes this 
understanding and the condition of the diplomatic relations between the 
United States and the People's Republic of China. We must send an 
unambiguous message to Beijing that the United States will not stand by 
idly while the future of Taiwan is threatened. To this end the United 
States must stand ready to defend Taiwan against any resort of force or 
other forms of coercion that would jeopardize Taiwan's security.

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