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For Immediate Release                                                                               

February 20, 2008

CONTACT: Iris Ho 

REPUBLICANS CALL UPON PRESIDENT BUSH TO END ONE CHINA POLICY - EMPHASIZE POLICY’s CONFLICT WITH TAIWAN RELATIONS ACT

 

A mere few weeks before Taiwan’s presidential elections and planned UN referendum, nine Members of Congress, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee member Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) sent a letter to President Bush calling for an end to the United States One China Policy, a move supporting Taiwan's democracy.

The letter, which is almost unanimously co-signed by Members of Congress from President Bush’s own party, challenges the Administration’s accommodating and sometimes conflicting policy towards China. The Members express concern about the U.S. insistence in rigidly adhering to this outdated One China Policy which clashes with the U.S. commitment to Taiwan’s security and its support for Taiwan's democracy.

Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Chair of the House Republican Policy Committee Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Steve Chabot (R-OH), Scott Garrett (R-OH), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), John Culberson (R-TX), Mark Souder (R-IN) and Collin Peterson (D-MN) state that “This implication [that Taiwan is part of China] seriously undermines the legitimacy of our provision to sell Taiwan defensive weapons. It also ignores the fact that Taiwan has made an impressive transformation from authoritarianism to democracy over the past twenty years.”

They continue, “it is clear that it is not the ‘One China Policy’ that has kept the peace in the western Pacific. Rather, it has been our commitment to Taiwan's security under the Taiwan Relations Act. The TRA has safeguarded Taiwan and the region by deterring a Chinese attack. Taiwan's democratic transformation also contributed to regional stability.”

They continue, “Unless our outdated policy vis-à-vis the PRC and Taiwan is modernized, the United States should expect tensions in the region to continue rising. Perhaps the primary reason for this is because the so-called ‘One China Policy' and the Taiwan Relations Act – the two fundamental pillars governing U.S. relations with China and Taiwan, in fact work against each other…..It simply makes no sense for the United States to continue adhering to a 1970's era, Cold War China policy in such a dramatically transformed 21st century world.”

They conclude, “Only by giving democratic Taiwan unwavering support will we be an effective advocate for democratic change in China.”

FAPA President Bob Yang PhD. states: “The One China Policy is dangerous! It is a dangerous fiction that the United States has bought into. Why? Because if we (the United States) do as much as even acknowledge the Chinese claim over Taiwan, as laid down in the One China Policy, we adhere to a policy where China's aggression against Taiwan would be acceptable to us.”
 

“On the other hand, if the US would abolish the One China Policy completely and thus abolish its acknowledgment of Beijing's claim over Taiwan, there would be zero US tolerance for Beijing's use of force against Taiwan. All real or imagined ties between China and Taiwan would be severed.”