[LETTER]

Faleomavaega responds

I am writing in response to your recent editorial (“Faleomavaega: No friend of Taiwan,” March 25, page 8). No name is attached to the editorial, which suggests that either the author or your newspaper has its own political agenda.

Given that your paper published false reports from Coen Blaauw, executive director of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), on March 21 and again on March 26, in which he twisted the truth about my involvement with the 30th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), and also given that your newspaper never bothered to contact my office for a response to his untruthful comments, one might conclude that your newspaper stands in opposition to the will of your people, who voted in 2008 for a change in Administration and for a more honest government.

For your information, like every other Subcommittee, the House Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment is responsible for reviewing the language of any bill put forward within its jurisdiction, and this is no different for the legislation celebrating the 30th anniversary of the TRA.

Prior to the Subcommittee’s markup, Chairman Howard Berman and Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of the Foreign Affairs committee agreed to the changes I offered, as did the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, Mr. Manzullo, and the bill’s author. All other Subcommittee members agreed to the language by unanimous consent.

As is the case with America’s democracy, at any time, any Member involved could have objected to the new language being offered but instead Members chose to support the changes.

While Congressman Royce did raise an issue about the trade references being struck, he still supported the bill. I was also in favor of including trade references as long as the legislation made plain that Taiwan’s No. 1 trading partner is not the United States but Beijing.

Since my proposed changes were supported by all members of the Subcommittee as well as the Chairman and Ranking member of the full committee prior to the markup, are these Members of Congress also no friend of Taiwan? I do not believe so.

In fact, unlike Mr. Blaauw, Members understood that the new language offered was consistent with the TRA, and I would suggest that Mr. Blaauw and your staff reporter, Mr. Lowther, review the TRA. In so doing, both will learn that the alternative language which they have criticized which states that “it is the policy of the US to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character” is language straight from the TRA.

The following language, which I added, is also straight from the TRA: It is the policy of the United States “to preserve and promote extensive, close, and friendly commercial, cultural, and other relations between the people of the United States and the people on Taiwan, as well as the people on the China mainland.”

In view of the fact that this language is straight from the TRA, why would your anonymous writer, your reporter, or Mr. Blaauw take issue with this language?

I submit they take issue because it is their desire to turn the TRA into something it is not.

The TRA is not a platform for independence, as they would like it to be, and the American people, as well as the young people on Taiwan, deserve to know the truth about the history of the TRA.