[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 12, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S1887]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       READ THE RIOT ACT TO CHINA

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, in response to the irresponsible 
statements by China recently about Taiwan and their relationship with 
the United States, the Chicago Tribune had an excellent editorial which 
I ask to be printed in full in the Record.
  While I differ some with my friend Senator Dianne Feinstein, the 
other day she told me that the United States should stop zigzaging all 
over the place in terms of China policy.
  I could not agree with her more.
  Our policy should be consistent so that both China and Taiwan 
understand where we are. We are not hostile to China. We are not 
hostile to Taiwan. We want to be friends with both.
  China must also understand that if there is a tilt from time to time 
between a democracy and a dictatorship, the tilt of the United States 
of America will be to democracy.
  The article follows:

               [From the Chicago Tribune, Jan. 25, 1996]

                       Read the Riot Act to China

       China has gone too far. According to press reports from 
     Beijing, China has drawn up plans for possible attacks on 
     Taiwan after that island-state completes it first democratic 
     presidential elections in March.
       But it doesn't stop there: China also has issued veiled 
     threats to hit America with nuclear missiles if the U.S. 
     military intervenes.
       The U.S. has shown extraordinary patience with China, 
     hoping by sweet reason and constructive engagement to coax it 
     into behaving reasonably, constructively--and peacefully.
       But threats of war are intolerable. America must put an end 
     to Beijing's strutting and bullying. President Clinton must 
     immediately let the Chinese know in no uncertain terms that 
     the U.S. military will guarantee Taiwan's territorial 
     integrity from missile attack or invasion. And he must back 
     that warning with action: dispatching an aircraft carrier 
     task force off the Taiwanese coast, perhaps, or sending a 
     contingent of American soldiers to the island as a tripwire.
       But Clinton must do more: He must tell the gerontocrats in 
     Beijing that even so much as a hint of an attack on the 
     United States will bring consequences for China more horrible 
     than they can imagine.
       The U.S. dollar had a roller-coaster ride Wednesday on 
     rumors and denials of war-mongering from China. It started 
     when The New York Times quoted Chas. W. Freeman, a former 
     assistant defense secretary, as saying China has plans for 
     launching a missile a day against Taiwan should Beijing 
     perceive the island striding too quickly toward independence.
       Even more chilling were comments that the Chinese feel they 
     can act with impunity because American leaders ``care more 
     about Los Angeles than they do about Taiwan''--interpreted as 
     a threat to launch nuclear missiles against the U.S. to deter 
     involvement.
       No response can be too muscular in warning China that even 
     such fortune-cookie-style threats are intolerable. After all, 
     this is the same China that violates nonproliferation 
     treaties by shipping ballistic missiles to Pakistan and by 
     selling equipment for manufacturing chemical weapons to Iran. 
     This is the same China that stands accused of operating an 
     island-like chain of slave-labor camps and of dealing with 
     unwanted orphans by allowing them to starve to death.
       Beijing needs to understand that the American eagle offers 
     a choice. The first, an olive branch, promises peaceful 
     intercourse and free trade. But the other claw holds the 
     mightiest quiver of arrows the world has ever known, and 
     America is ready to use them.

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