[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 134 (Wednesday, September 25, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11315-S11316]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 

              TAIWAN'S NEW FOREIGN MINISTER, JOHN H. CHANG

 Mr. COHEN. Mr. President, I rise today to say a few words 
about Taiwan's new Foreign Minister, John H. Chang.
  Mr. Chang's selection as Foreign Minister at this crucial moment in 
relations between mainland China and Taiwan is particularly 
appropriate, because his background represents the complexity of the 
cross-straits relationship writ small. Born on the mainland in the 
midst of the Second World War, Chang came with his family to Taiwan in 
1949.
  Although a mainlander by background, Minister Chang grew up among 
local Taiwanese and became equally comfortable speaking Mandarin, 
Taiwanese, and Hakka. He has been able to bridge the tensions between 
Taiwanese and mainlanders that have marked much of the island's postwar 
politics. Among the first KMT leaders to open a dialog with opposition 
members, Minister Chang served as a key player in the talks between the 
governing party and the Taiwanese opposition in the years leading up to 
the democratizing reforms of the late 1980's. Earlier this year, Chang 
won the highest percentage of votes of any candidate in Taiwan's 
assembly elections.
  Minister Chang is a skilled diplomat and a seasoned negotiator. His 
presence in President Lee Teng-hui's cabinet should be a force for good 
in cross-straits relations.
  Mr. President, I request that an article on Minister Chang from the 
Asian Wall Street Journal be placed in the Record at this point to 
further acquaint my colleagues with Minister Chang and his background.

          [From the Asian Wall Street Journal, June 21, 1996]

           Chang Aims To Expand Taiwan's Role on World Stage

                           (By Leslie Chang)

       Taipei.--By his second day in office, Taiwan's foreign 
     minister was hearing the first attacks from China: He is 
     ``untrustworthy'' and ``betraying (his) family.''
       Mention of the criticisms, attributed to Beijing sources 
     and reported in a Hong Kong newspaper, elicits only a 
     diplomatic ``no comment'' from John Chang, in his first 
     interview since joining the new cabinet of Taiwan President 
     Lee Teng-hui last week. But in an hour long conservation in 
     the ministry's lushly appointed reception room, lined with 
     framed photographs of the career diplomat with everyone from 
     Mikhail Gorbachev to Bob Hope, the 55-year-old Mr. Chang 
     isn't always so circumspect.
       ``It is mainland China which has complicated the issue, 
     which has confused all the world,'' asserts Mr. Chang, 
     speaking of a year of heightened tensions between Beijing and 
     Taipei.
       As Mr. Chang takes on the touchiest of ministerial 
     portfolios amid that standoff, such broadsides and rebuttals 
     seem a fitting start. After all, the very existence of his 
     job is irritating to Chinese leaders, who regard Taiwan as a 
     Chinese province, which shouldn't pursue its own foreign 
     policy. And Mr. Chang likely will work aggressively to beef 
     up the island's ties with other countries, analysts say, 
     while his good relations with the president ensure a more 
     seamless foreign policy than ever before.
       ``His profile will be higher'' than that of his 
     predecessor, Fredrick Chien, predicts Chou Yu-kou, who has 
     written a biography of Mr. Chang's mother as well as three 
     biographies of Taiwan's current president. Mr. Chang's 
     ``voice can be louder; he can push hard for `pragmatic 
     diplomacy,' '' Ms. Chou says, referring to Mr. Lee's policy 
     of establishing formal ties with as many nations as possible.
       One reason Mr. Chang can step up these efforts lies in his 
     unusual background: He is a grandson of Chiang Kai-shek, who 
     ruled China for two decades before fleeing with his 
     Nationalist troops to Taiwan in 1949, defeated by the Chinese 
     Communists in a civil war. Mr. Chang and a twin brother who 
     died earlier this year were the illegitimate offspring of a 
     wartime affair between Chiang Ching-kuo, the general's son 
     and later Taiwan's president, and a woman he met in the 
     southern Chinese province of Jiangxi, who died shortly after 
     the twins were born.
       But Mr. Chang and his twin brother, who came to Taiwan in 
     1949 and were raised by their maternal grandmother, were 
     unaware of their illustrious parentage until they went to 
     college, according to Ms. Chou's book. While most main 
     landers settled in Taipei, speaking the official Chinese 
     Mandarin dialect among themselves and dominating all top 
     government and military posts, the boys grew up in the 
     smaller northern city of Hsinchu and spoke the local 
     Taiwanese and Hakka dialects.
       ``I was brought up . . . with native children,'' says Mr. 
     Chang. ``I see no differences between mainlanders and 
     Taiwanese.'' Mr. Chang's viewpoint is unusual on an island 
     where ethnic differences often lie just beneath the surface. 
     Such close associations with local Taiwanese people, he 
     believes, helped him garner the highest percentage of votes 
     island-wide in March elections to Taiwan's National Assembly.
       The combination of an elite mainland background and 
     Taiwanese sympathies also gives Mr. Chang the clout to do 
     things his way. As a rising star in Taiwan's diplomatic corps 
     in the late 1970s, Mr. Chang was one of the first government 
     officials to initiate contact with antigovernnment 
     politicians, many of whom had fled abroad and faced treason 
     charges if they returned. Mr. Chang helped some of those 
     politicians to get off the government's blacklist and return 
     to Taiwan.
       ``He was pretty open, willing to take (such) risks,'' 
     recalls C.J. Chen, a vice minister of foreign affairs who has 
     known Mr. Chang for more than two decades. At the same time, 
     he adds, ``because of his background, people would have 
     little doubt about his loyalty.''
       Acquaintances describe Mr. Chang as liberal-minded and full 
     of energy. In his previous post as Overseas Chinese Affairs 
     Commissioner, for example, Mr. Chang shook up the sleepy 
     cabinet-level position by expanding contacts with overseas 
     Chinese communities around the world. In January, he hosted a 
     high-profile breakfast meeting in Washington between Taiwan 
     politicians and some of their U.S. counterparts, including 
     House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
       At a news conference last week, while other new cabinet 
     members shuffled papers and rattled off statistics, Mr. Chang 
     addressed each reporter by name and gave colorful responses. 
     Asked which was more

[[Page S11316]]

     important, Taiwan's foreign policy or its policy toward the 
     mainland, he responded, ``If you are going fishing, is it the 
     hook or the line that is important?''
       Already, Mr. Chang is signaling a shift in tone from that 
     of his predecessor, Mr. Chien, who held the more conciliatory 
     stance that policy toward the mainland took precedence over 
     foreign policy. It is Mr. Chang's stepped up efforts to raise 
     Taiwan's international profile that has led some in Beijing 
     to accuse him of betraying the ideals of his father and 
     grandfather, who had hoped that the island would one day 
     reunify with the mainland.
       On some points, Mr. Chang strikes softer notes. Taiwan's 
     continuing efforts to join international organizations, he 
     says, will focus more on ``functional agencies'' such as the 
     World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World 
     Trade Organization.
       And while Taiwan will continue its efforts to take a more 
     active role in the United Nations--the move on the 
     international stage that most angers Beijing--Mr. Chang notes 
     that Taiwan isn't formally seeking U.N. membership, but 
     rather, it asks only that the U.N. study the issue of the 
     representation of Taiwan, which hasn't been a member of the 
     world body since 1971.
       But in the next breath, Mr. Chang says he is planning 
     overseas trips for later this year, and hopes to sign on new 
     countries ``who want to have formal relationships with us,'' 
     adding to the 31 nations that currently recognize Taiwan.
       Which new countries might those be? The diplomatic veil 
     drops again. ``You will hear about it,'' he promises, 
     smiling.

                          ____________________