[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 59 (Tuesday, May 12, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E816-E817]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     TAIWAN CELEBRATES PRESIDENT LEE'S SECOND ANNIVERSARY IN OFFICE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 12, 1998

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in extending my best 
wishes and congratulations to President Lee Teng-hui of the Republic of 
China on Taiwan.
  Two years ago, the people in Taiwan democratically elected a head of 
state for the first time in China's history. Incumbent President Lee 
Teng-hui took a resounding 54 percent of the vote on a platform of 
democracy and Taiwan's greater international assertiveness.
  Two years later, Taiwan's astonishing economic progress and political 
progress have enabled it to survive the latest Asian financial crisis. 
Taiwan has been an exemplary nation in the world--reaching out to the 
Chinese mainland seeking peace and reconciliation and extending 
financial assistance to all needy neighbors in southeast Asia.
  As we congratulate President Lee Teng-hui and the people of Taiwan, I 
wish to reassure them that many of us in the U.S. Congress

[[Page E817]]

and elsewhere believe in a free and democratic Taiwan. Decades of 
American constancy have helped draw Taiwan into free-market democracy, 
and it is squarely in the American interest to keep Taiwan democratic 
and free.
  We will make sure that the provisions in the Taiwan Relations Act 
shall be adhered to and that the United States will not make 
arrangements for Taiwan's future without full consultation with Taiwan.

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