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the One-China Policy |
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The White
House
May 8, 2003
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We -the joint Taiwanese American organizations- write to you
today to thank you for your exceptional support for Taiwan
over the past two years. A few weeks after your inauguration
you stated that you would do whatever it takes to defend
Taiwan. Ever since, you have expressed your support for
Taiwan whenever the opportunity arose. You stated repeatedly
that you continue to support the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act,
the U.S. "Law of the Land," the foundation of
U.S.-Taiwan Relations. Before you were President, you
visited Taiwan as Governor.
It therefore comes as a surprise to us Taiwanese Americans
that, on the front page of the East Asia and the Pacific
section of the State Department's newly released 2002
Country Report on Human Rights, Taiwan is being referred to
as "China (Taiwan only.)" In other sections of the
report Taiwan is being correctly referred to as
"Taiwan."
Taiwan's president, Mr. Chen Shui-bian, has repeatedly
stated that Taiwan no longer maintains that there is only
"One China." In recent statements, he has been
quite clear about the separate sovereignty of Taiwan. On
August 3, 2002, he declared, "Taiwan is not a part of
any other country, nor is it a local government or province
of another country. Taiwan can never be another Hong Kong or
Macau, because Taiwan has always been a sovereign state. In
short, Taiwan and China standing on opposite sides of the
Strait, there is one country on each side."
We are in complete agreement with President Chen that,
today, there is a separate sovereign country on each side of
the Taiwan Strait: Taiwan and China.
It is therefore clear that there is no such thing as a
"divided China" today, that Taiwan is not a
province of China, and that thus Taiwan can not be referred
to as "China (Taiwan only.)"
We ask that you consistently refer to Taiwan as
"Taiwan" in the next Human Rights Report and your
other publications.
We thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
- Formosan Association
for Public Affairs
- North America Taiwanese Engineers Association
- World United Formosans for Independence
- Formosa Foundation
- North American Taiwanese Professors Association
- Taiwanese Collegian -
North America Taiwanese Womens Association
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