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Lobbyists pressure US Congress

Taiwan supporters in the US Congress said a new resolution in the upcoming session will aim to draw a clear line between Taiwan's and China's sovereignty.

Wu Ming-chi (吳明基), chairman of the Washington-based Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA), one of the most active Taiwanese organizations engaged in congressional lobbying, said that the new resolution would not only endorse the Taiwanese government's holding of an election-day referendum, but also seek to reaffirm the part of the Six Assurances introduced by the Ronald Reagan administration, which recognizes Taiwan's separate status from China.

"The fifth and sixth points of the Six Assurances deal with Taiwan's sovereignty issue. Although the US has been adhering to the `one China' policy regarding cross-strait relations, it nevertheless recognizes that at no time since the [People's Republic of China] PRC was established in 1949 has Taiwan's sovereignty belonged to the PRC," Wu told the Taipei Times at an international parliamentary exchange meeting which brought more than 150 legislators from 50 countries to Taipei last week.

The Six Assurances were introduced in the early 1980s to allay concerns over Taiwan's security brought by the previous 1982 Joint Communique signed between Beijing and Washington to reduce gradually the amount of arms sales sold to Taiwan. The fifth and sixth points of the Six Assurances are: The US has not altered its position regarding sovereignty over Taiwan and the US will not exert pressure on the Republic of China to enter into negotiations with the PRC.

Wu said, "This is a very important distinction between the PRC's `one China' principle and US' `one China' policy, but oftentimes people confuse the two policies and mistakenly think the two are the same.

"The US' one China policy advocates a peaceful resolution on the cross-strait issues and that any decisions leading to the change of the status quo must acquire the assent of the Taiwanese people. In addition, the US doesn't recognize that Taiwan's sovereignty belongs to China," Wu said.

Wu continued, "The PRC's one China principle treats the so-called `Taiwan question' as the internal affairs of China. Although China also agrees to a `peaceful resolution' to the end of the cross-strait issue, it nevertheless means the imposition of the `one country, two systems' formula to coerce Taiwan to accept this sole means for what it calls a `peaceful resolution' to the China-Taiwan problem. Since the Six Assurances recognize that Taiwan's sovereignty does not belong to the PRC, it is clear that the sovereignty of Taiwan belongs to the Taiwanese people."

Based on this concept, Wu said the resolution would add a point at the end to specify that Taiwan's future should be determined by the people of Taiwan only, excluding the people of the PRC.

Prospects for such a bill, however, have unnerved China, prompting its US ambassador last month to send a letter to all members of Congress urging them to reject the planned legislation. In his letter, dated Dec. 30, Chinese Ambassador Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎) urged the members of Congress to "prevent the above-mentioned draft resolution from passage in the US Congress."

He said the bill "runs counter to the relevant commitment of the United States government" in its one China policy, and its commitments in the three US-China communiques.

"Facts have shown," Yang wrote, "that [President] Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is a trouble-maker. He cares about nothing but his own political agenda, ie `Taiwanese independence' and his own re-election."

No previous Chinese ambassador is known to have made such a direct lobbying effort to Congress to reject a legislative initiative involving Taiwan.
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