[Apologetics] US Assures Taiwan It Has Not Changed Policy

[Art Kelly]

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Art

US Assures Taiwan It Has Not Changed Policy
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
October 28, 2004

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Secretary of State
Colin Powell's assertion that Taiwan does not enjoy
sovereignty and suggestion that "reunification" is the
desired outcome of the island's dispute with China did
not constitute any change to long-standing policy,
U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Powell's comments, made in two media interviews during
a visit to China this week, were interpreted as moving
away from the intentional ambiguity that has long
characterized the U.S. approach to the Taiwan issue.

The remarks were warmly received in Beijing, but
caused an uproar in Taipei, where Foreign Minister
Mark Chen told lawmakers Powell's statements had
"breached mutual trust."

Government officials and lawmakers said Powell's
assessment that Taiwan was not sovereign clearly
contradicted the reality on the ground.

Powell's suggestion in an interview with CNN that
reunification was the eventual outcome "all parties
are seeking" was simply not true, they said. Taiwan's
president and ruling party lean towards eventual
independence for Taiwan, not reunification with the
mainland.

There was some speculation in Taiwan that Powell had
misspoken, saying "reunification" instead of
"resolution."

But in another interview, with China's Phoenix TV,
Powell again raised the idea of reunification,
speaking of moving "toward that day when we will see a
peaceful unification."

He also made the controversial comments about Taiwan's
sovereignty.

Asked about Taiwan's assertions that it already
enjoyed sovereignty and therefore had no need to
declare independence, Powell replied: "There is only
one China. Taiwan is not independent. It does not
enjoy sovereignty as a nation, and that remains our
policy, our firm policy."

Taiwan has ruled itself since the Nationalist Chinese
government decamped to the island after losing a civil
war half a century ago. The communist mainland regards
the territory - now a capitalist democracy of 23
million people -- as a renegade province that must be
reincorporated, by force if necessary.

The U.S. recognizes the government in Beijing, but
retains de facto diplomatic ties with Taipei and is
committed, through the 1972 Taiwan Relations Act, to
help it defend itself -- a sore point in U.S.-China
ties.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher denied that
Powell's comments marked any change in U.S. policy,
which was "to promote a dialogue, a dialogue aimed at
a peaceful resolution."

In Taipei, Washington's de facto ambassador, Douglas
Paal, held talks with Chen, following which the
foreign ministry said Paal had reiterated that the
policy remained unchanged.

It said Paal had spoken of U.S. hopes that both sides
across the Taiwan strait would seek "peaceful
resolution" rather than "peaceful unification."

In the U.S., Taiwanese officials pressed the
government to clarify that a set of 1982 policy
guidelines enunciated by President Reagan and known as
the "six assurances," remained intact.

The most important of those assurances was that the
U.S. had not altered its position regarding
sovereignty over Taiwan - that the issue was
undetermined and should be decided peacefully by the
sides themselves.

Powell came under fire Wednesday from Heritage
Foundation research fellow John Tkacik, who urged the
Bush administration to "immediately correct the
record," failing which "Secretary Powell will have
undone in one stroke 50 years of U.S. policy on the
China-Taiwan issue."

Powell's statements signaled to Beijing "that the
United States has finally accepted China's right,
under international law, to use force to reclaim
territory in a civil war," he argued. "That is a green
light for conflict in the Taiwan Strait that the
Chinese would be only too happy to observe."

Tkacik said Powell was wrong on the question of
sovereignty.

"Taiwan certainly does 'enjoy sovereignty as a
nation,' whether the U.S. recognizes it or not."

He noted that the Convention on Rights and Duties of
States, signed by the U.S. in 1933, gives four
qualifications for a state: a permanent population; a
defined territory; government; and capacity to enter
into relations with the other states.

"There is universal acceptance -- even, truth be told,
in Beijing (and this is why the idea of 'Taiwan
Independence' drives Chinese leaders to distraction)
-- that Taiwan possesses all four of these
attributes," Tkacik said.


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