In what was one of the most specific and, to some Taiwan supporters, one of the most disturbing statements on US Vice President Al Gore's policy toward Taiwan, Gore's leading foreign policy advisor, Leon Feurth, said Thursday that Gore would recognize "one China" if elected president next month.
The vice president recognizes and supports the "one China" doctrine, Feurth told a forum held at the State Department in Washington, in which he received an award for public service.
Gore believes it is imperative for China and for Taiwan to settle their issues peacefully through dialogue and ultimately in a manner that reflects the free will of the people of Taiwan, Feurth said.
Feurth -- Gore's national security advisor both during the vice presidency and in Gore's current campaign for president -- made his comments in answer to a question, and without notes, but supporters of Taiwan felt the statement went beyond similar statements made both by the Clinton administration and the Gore presidential campaign in recognizing the mainland's claim on the "one China" issue.
Clinton and officials of his administration have normally acknowledged the "one China" principle, or words to that effect. But some observers feel that his recognition of the policy has crossed the boundary between passive acknowledgement and active support for China's position, in a way that conflicts with the idea that a definition of "one China" was something that remained to be defined, a key point made by President Chen Shui-bian (
Taiwan observers here were pleased, nonetheless, by Feurth's comment on the free will of the people of Taiwan, feeling that such wording would offset any insistence on a "one China" doctrine.
Feurth made it clear that Gore, if elected, would continue the Clinton administration's policy of engagement with Beijing, and would consider China a major force in the 21st century.
Feurth said, however, that China was likely to be a strategic partner of the US some of the time, and not a strategic partner at other times, a position that dilutes the Clinton position that China is a full-time strategic partner, but counter to the harder-line position of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, according to which China should be viewed as a strategic competitor.
Both sides need each other, Feurth said of Beijing and Washington.
Feurth's comments came just two days after another senior Gore policy advisor, Bruce Jentelson, said the US' fundamental commitment is to a peaceful cross-strait resolution, and for Washington to play a useful role in bringing this about.
Gore believed the overall resolution of the issue, as well as the overall security of the region, would be helped by efforts to try to develop US relations with China, Jentelson said.
Last week. former US Beijing Ambassador James Sasser, a key Gore Asian advisor, said Gore would adhere to a "one China" policy, a formulation less specific than the one Feurth expressed Thursday.
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