If he becomes president, Vice President Al Gore will push Taiwan and China to move ahead with implementing the so-called "three links" of direct transportation, commerce and postal and communication ties as a way of encouraging interim steps toward a resolution of cross-strait relations, a key Asian policy advisor to Gore said yesterday.
Gore would aim for "encouraging more intercourse between Taiwan and China, financially, culturally and every other way," former US ambassador to Beijing James Sasser told a meeting of the Asia Society in Washington.
Noting that Taiwan businesses are now the biggest financial investors in China and have the biggest foreign business stake, Sasser said a Gore administration would "move down the road of trying to encourage that and see if that would not be the way to ultimately resolve" cross-strait relations.
Cross-strait relations are "the stickiest and most difficult question in our relations with China," Sasser noted.
As president, Gore would make "a strong diplomatic effort to encourage the parties to enter into talks and confidence-building measures," Sasser said. He said Gore would continue Washington's "one China" policy that has been in place since 1978, when the US formally switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
Sandra Kristoff, former chief White House China specialist and senior Gore Asia policy advisor, outlined a policy toward Taiwan that a Gore administration would pursue.
This would include: a "one-China" policy; a resolution that cross-strait relations are for Beijing and Taipei to work out; opposition to the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act; and a pledge to "look cautiously and judiciously" at a theater missile defense (TMD) shield for Taiwan.
A Gore administration would also demand that both China and Taiwan be admitted to the WTO.
Gore would also engage in "intensive diplomacy" with China before deciding on any theater missile defense system for Asia if he is elected president, Sasser, said.
"A Gore administration would first engage in intense diplomacy with China and our Russian friends in an effort to persuade them that missile defense, either a national theater missile defense or [an Asian] theater missile defense, is not an offensive weapon and something they should not be threatened by," he said.
He would not say whether Gore would extend the TMD to Taiwan, saying only, "That's a question that will have to be answered in the future."
Sasser and Kristoff are considered Gore's chief Asia policy advisors and could get senior posts in a Gore administration.
Kristoff might get back the position she had as the National Security Council's top Asia expert if Gore is elected. It is unclear what post Sasser might take.
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