Two cheers for Bush's Taiwan decision

Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman, Frank de Bruin, was equally blunt. "The Netherlands," he said, "maintains a one-China policy. That means no weapons are to be sold to Taiwan or to third parties for resale to Taiwan."

Without the cooperation of the Dutch or the Germans-- and surely we must have known their position beforehand, say Bush's critics-the United States will have to build these subs from scratch, a task that may take eight or 10 years, two to three times longer than if we had access to the designs. Thus, China's strong objections to our providing Taiwan the Aegis, the PAC-3 and the submarines, some are saying, may have paid off after all.

Harsh conservative critics of the Bush decision, however, are in the minority. The majority upbeat assessment is that the President has ditched the Clinton policy and has taken significant steps to enable Taiwan to deter any potential Chicom attack.

Moreover, despite the furor it caused, President Bush's statement last week on ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" that strongly indicated that the United States would use force to defend Taiwan from attack greatly encouraged many in the pro-Taiwan national security community (see page 4). Asked if we had "an obligation to defend the Taiwanese," Bush responded: "Yes, we do, and the Chinese must understand that." But with the "full force of American military?" he was pressed. "Whatever it took to help Taiwan defend herself," he replied.

Some critics complained Bush's statement exceeded the terms of the Taiwan Relations Act, but the TRA says that the policy of the United States is "to maintain the capacity of the U.S. to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security or social or economic system of the people on Taiwan." It also says that any nonpeaceful action, including "boycotts or embargoes," against Taiwan would be "a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States."

By week's end, Bush had not significantly backtracked. his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said that Bush's statement shows "how seriously and resolutely" the President takes his obligations under the TRA.

Whether the President decides to stick with his statement or soften the formula is almost irrelevant, argue Taiwan's supporters. What is extremely important, they say, is that Bush has revealed his strong determination to prevent the free, democratic Republic of China from being conquered by the Communists on the mainland. That's a major psychological weapon the Chinese Communists will have to contend with in their powwows on how to take Taiwan, along with the sophisticated hardware Bush has promised he would deliver to the ROC.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Apr 30, 2001
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