The US Republican Party on Monday reaffirmed its commitments to Taiwan and said for the first time in its party platform that "all issues regarding Taiwan's future must be resolved peacefully and must be agreeable to the people of Taiwan."
In a platform adopted by delegates meeting in Philadelphia for the party's national convention, the party said that a Republican president "will honor our promises to the people of Taiwan, a long-standing friend of the US and a genuine democracy."
With regard to the issue of providing for Taiwan's self-defense, the Republican Platform 2000 says that "Taiwan deserves America's strong support, including the timely sale of defensive arms to enhance Taiwan's security."
"America has acknowledged the view that there is one China," the platform says in the section covering US international relations.
"Our policy is based on the principle that there must be no use of force by China against Taiwan. We deny the right of Beijing to impose its rule on the free Taiwanese people," it says, adding that "all issues regarding Taiwan's future must be resolved peacefully and must be agreeable to the people of Taiwan."
"If China violates these principles and attacks Taiwan, then the US will respond appropriately in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act," the platform said.
Bruce Jackson, chairman of the subcommittee on foreign policy, told the Taipei Times that the US was willing to help Taiwan defend itself. Jackson said that democracy had to be respected.
"If the people of Taiwan chose not to pursue a political relationship with PRC, that's a decision that must be respected," he said.
He emphasized that there was a strong sense of support among committee members about Taiwan's security and democracy.
Paul Wolfowitz, a former undersecretary of defense and currently a key advisor to Republican presidential candidate George W Bush, said on Monday that if Beijing resorts to the use of force, the result would be "catastrophic."
While acknowledging the good will the Republican Party shows toward Taiwan through its platform, Chen Chien-jen (
The Republican Party platform supports the accession to the WTO of both China and Taiwan, but also indicates that it considers China "America's key challenge in Asia."
It says that Beijing represses political expression at home and unsettles neighbors abroad and that China is a country in transition. Therefore, it says, US policies toward Beijing should be "firm and steady."
The platform says that the US hopes for the advent of a free and prosperous China and that conflict between the two countries is not inevitable.
"Republicans support China's accession into the WTO, but this will not be a substitute for, or lessen the resolve of, our pursuit of improved human rights and an end to proliferation of dangerous technologies by China," the platform states.
The platform says that China is "a strategic competitor of the US" rather than a "strategic partner," a term used by the current Democratic administration.
It says that a Republican government "will understand the importance of China but not place China at the center of its Asia policy."
Elsewhere, the platform indicates that "America's foreign policy in Asia starts with its allies" such as Japan, South Korea, Australia, which "are critical in building and expanding peace, security and prosperity in East Asia, joined by long-standing friends like Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and New Zealand."
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