Before taking over the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May, Delaware's Democratic Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr often reminded witnesses testifying at committee hearings that he and then-chairman Jesse Helms were good friends.
He was at his most vocal in this when scolding members of his fellow-Democrat Bill Clinton's administration. Urging them to do something that Helms wanted them to do, he would trumpet words to the effect that, "you had better do this quickly, because the chairman and I are good friends, and I know that he will do something about it. You had better listen to him."
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Despite that professed friendship, Biden and Helms are far apart in their political philosophies and world views. So when control of the Senate switched from the Republicans to the Democrats this spring, it signaled that the committee is likely to look at the world in a different way and that attitudes toward Taiwan and China will be among noticeable changes.
That was underscored clearly last week when Biden led a bipartisan, four-member congressional delegation to Taiwan and China to become the first foreign relations chairman to make such a trip in many years. By contrast, Helms had never visited another country as congressman until he ventured to Mexico last year.
The five-day visit to Taiwan and China was precedent-setting in several ways. It demonstrated that Biden planned to take a more hands-on approach to China and Taiwan issues than did Helms, and that he hopes to become a more influential player in US policy toward the two nations. It also shows that he is seriously interested in cultivating relations with China, and is willing to maintain more of an arms-length relationship with Taipei than did his fiercely anti-China, pro-Taiwan Republican predecessor.
Downplaying remarks
If nothing else, the trip helped to focus his attention on the Taiwan issue. His first words on arrival in Taipei were to play down US President George W. Bush's April statement that the US would do "whatever it took" to defend Taiwan against a mainland attack.
While he strongly condemned Bush's remarks right after Bush made them in a TV interview, the fact that he repeated them in Taiwan was significant.
Then, after meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民), Biden seemed surprised that the Beijing leadership was more interested in Taiwan than in the strategic issues that Biden came prepared to discuss.
"They are sending a not-so-subtle message -- you have a problem with Pakistan, with Iran; we have a problem with Taiwan," Biden said.
Whether and how the visit will change Biden's thinking on cross-strait issues remains to be seen as he has given no indication.
Biden, 58, is a member of the Democrat's moderate wing, who has made most of his mark in the Senate on crime legislation and Supreme Court nominations as head of the Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995.
Originally elected to the Senate in 1972 at the age of 29, he immediately suffered tragedy when his wife and infant daughter were killed in a Christmas traffic accident that left his two sons critically injured.
In 1987, he ran an ill-fated campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination that was sidetracked by charges that he plagiarized a campaign speech.
He dropped out of the race just before discovering a blood clot in the artery to his brain that almost killed him and kept him hospitalized until the following spring.
In 1997, after winning his sixth, six-year Senate term the year before, he became the ranking Democrat in the Foreign Relations Committee.
A member of the committee since 1975, he made a name as a strong arms-control advocate and Europe specialist.
His arms-control stance helps explain some of his main positions affecting Taiwan, where he has been a vociferous opponent of Bush's missile defense plan -- including any extension of a missile shield to Taiwan -- and has strongly opposed what he would consider an overly-firm commitment to Taiwan defense issues.
He was the leading opponent, for instance, of Helms' advocacy of a Taiwan Security Enhancement Act, which would expand military-to-military relations between Washington and Taipei, including secure high-level communications links, and would, under the Helms version, mandate the sale to Taiwan of a number of arms systems which Washington has refused to supply.
He is also opposed to the sale to Taiwan of AEGIS-equipped Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and other military items that he feels could spur cross-strait tensions. As his comments on Bush's TV statement on Taiwan indicate, he is also in favor of a narrow reading of the Taiwan Relations Act, which forms the basis of the US' commitment to arm Taiwan defensively and support Taiwan against a mainland attack.
Committed to taiwan
Nevertheless, he is committed to the security and freedom of Taiwan, and, as such, is in the mainstream of American political backing of Taiwan's position.
Noting that he was among the handful of extant Senators who voted for the Taiwan Relations Act, he told the Senate in April, "I remain as committed today as I was then to the peaceful resolution of the Taiwan question."
And, in a 1999 debate over the Taiwan security act, he noted that "China should have no doubt that our commitment [to Taiwan's security] remains firm."
That security, he said, "flows from its democratic form of government, its growing economic, cultural and political contacts with the mainland, and ultimately, the United States' abiding commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan question."
Therefore, he said, "we should concentrate on strengthening those areas rather than spend time preauthorizing the sale of weapon systems, some of which don't even exist yet."
Nevertheless, his remarks after Bush's "whatever it took" statement raises questions about how far he would be willing to go to support Taiwan militarily if push comes to shove.
"Contrary to the president's statement the United States is not obligated to defend Taiwan, `with the full force of the American military,' and hasn't been since we abrogated the 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty signed by president Eisen-hower and ratified by the US Senate.
"And contrary to the White House spokesman's comments, the president does not have the authority unilaterally to commit US forces to the defense of Taiwan. Under the Constitution, as well as the provisions of the Taiwan Relations Act, that is a matter which the president must bring to the American people and to the Congress of the United States."
He added that he supports a policy that would "retain the right to use force to defend Taiwan, while reserving to the United States all the decision-making authority about the circumstances in which we might, or might not, commit US forces."
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