Mon, Apr 16, 2001 page3

• Taiwan son reflects on public service and politics

  David Wu , who has become the first Taiwanese-American member of the US Congress, spoke to `Taipei Times' staff reporter Monique Chu yesterday about his decision to pursue a career in politics and touched on the issue of US arms sales to Taiwan

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  Taipei Times: You studied biology at Stanford, went to Harvard Medical School and then quit medical school to get a law degree at Yale. And now you stand out as the first Taiwanese American member of the US Congress. How did you finally decide to get involved in politics?

  David Wu (吳振偉): I always felt very strongly that public service makes a very important difference in people's lives. During that year between medical school and law school, I was doing public health work, but I also took a trip to mainland China. This is in 1978. I remembered telling a relative that I was thinking about going to law school, and she said, "why?" [Then I said,] "Well, to do a lot of things, and perhaps I'll be interested in even something political in the long term." Then she said, "Oh, politics. Politics is very dangerous." You know from a traditional Chinese perspective, government and politics may be dangerous historically.

  But I think that at this age, it's dangerous not to be involved. We have been given this opportunity through the sacrifice of many people. In America, the history is somewhat older if you will.

  

  David Wu, US House representative from Oregon and the first-ever Taiwan-born member of Congress, speaks to the Taipei Times.

  PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

  Here in Taiwan, people have a sense of the development and struggle over just the last few decades.

  First of all, it's very important to participate. It's dangerous not to [participate], to let the system drip without our participation. We stay true to the sacrifice of those people by participating in the process.

  If I think back to my days in Hsinchu, my father was never there -- from the perspective that I had no recollection of him being there -- because he left when I was four months old for the US to be a foreign graduate student in up-state New York. It was very difficult for my parents. They were apart for over six years.

  A lot of immigrants from here or immigrants from all over shared that [experience]. These things are sometimes not well remembered in history. But a lot of immigrant groups to America have gone through this parallel experience.

  But an election made all the difference in my life and to my family. Because if John Kennedy hadn't beaten Richard Nixon in the US presidential election of 1960, we might have had to wait for another half a dozen years. I don't know if we ever would have made it to the United States.

  But because of that election, Kennedy got into office. He changed the American immigration law, and literally years were cut off on our wait to go to the US.

  So in that very specific instance, an election made all the difference in the world.

  And I think that elections continue to make that kind of difference.

  For us, the choice between Al Gore and George Bush made a very big difference in where the American policy was going to be for the next four years.

  I think that Taiwan has gone through a very historic election. First of all, I want to make it clear that I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment on Taiwan domestic politics. But I think that recognizing the historic achievement of a smooth transition of power is, I think, for the history book.

  TT: As far as I know, your father was very displeased about your decision to quit medical school before pursuing law. What is his view on your new role as a US congressman? Is he happy about it?

  Wu: (Laughs.) Maybe this is just typical for a Chinese family or maybe this is just typical for families in general. We really haven't talked about it.

  We talked about his grandchildren, my children. We talked about when we'll be arriving to visit them and when we'll be leaving. We talked about all the family things. We don't talk much about some of these things.

  TT: The recent US-China spy-plane standoff and the temporary end of the impasse have triggered suspicion over the linkage between the standoff and US arms sale to Taiwan. What's your observation on this?

  Wu: Let me make it clear that there is no spy plane involved here. A spy plane is an unmarked aircraft that is doing something illegal. This was a US reconnaissance aircraft, clearly marked as such, clearly in international air space. This was a patrol plane on regular patrol duty.

  I think the issue of this reconnaissance aircraft and the obligations of the US to sell appropriate defensive weapons to Taiwan should and are delinked. There should not be a linkage between those issues.

  Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the US has treaty obligations to sell appropriate defensive arms, appropriate and necessary to Taiwan. I would strongly encourage the Bush administration to carry through those treaty obligations.

  TT: How about pressure from some members on Capitol Hill to push the Bush administration to sell AEGIS-equipped destroyers to Taiwan following the US-China standoff?

  Wu: There are 100 US senators and there are 435 members of the House. That's 535 people. They are a reasonable cross section of American society, I suppose. I think that it's always difficult to get 535 people to be precise in their thinking and precise in their speech.

  From my perspective, these issues are appropriately decoupled. And the sole criteria by which the decision should be made are what is necessary for Taiwan's legitimate defense needs. And you'll find my colleagues in the US House and the US Senate saying all sorts of things at one time or another. And I might agree with them, and I might disagree with them.

  In this instance, I can only speak for myself. Speaking from my view of the situation, those issues are appropriately de-linked and the sole criteria should be what is the appropriate defense need of Taiwan.

  That is what the treaty says, and that is how the decision should be made. And if the decision is made in any other way, I would be disappointed and I would not be shy about expressing my disappointment in various appropriate ways.
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