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For
immediate release
June 10, 2002
CTC to Wolfowitz and Powell:
Taiwan Issue Should Be
Resolved Peacefully
and
with the Express Consent of the People
In a
6/7 letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz,
the co-chairs of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus thanked
Wolfowitz for his recent clarifying remarks regarding U.S.
policy toward Taiwan and encouraged him to insure that neither
the press nor Chinese officials confuse the subtlety
of the US one China policy with the absoluteness
of the PRCs one China principle.
And:
We hope that you will re-affirm our nation's iron-clad
commitment to Taiwan as agreed to under the Taiwan Relations
Act and take steps to ensure that the Taiwan Strait issue
be resolved peacefully and with the express consent of the
people of Taiwan.
In an
almost identical letter, Caucus co-chairs Reps. Robert Wexler
(D-FL), Steve Chabot (R-OH), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Dana
Rohrabacher (R-CA), urge Secretary of State Colin Powell,
who will speak at the Asia Society in New York on Monday
evening June 10, to use Monday's speech as an opportunity
to issue a statement re-affirming our nation's iron-clad
commitment to Taiwan as agreed to under the Taiwan Relations
Act and to take appropriate steps to ensure that the Taiwan
Strait issue be resolved peacefully and with the express
consent of the people of Taiwan.
Reason
for the co-chairs to write were mid-May statements Wolfowitz
had made which were interpreted by some press reports as
a move away from the balanced US approach toward Taiwan
which has insisted that the island's status was still undetermined
and a step toward acceptance of the People's Republic of
China's insistence that Taiwan was part of China.
FAPA
President Wu Ming-chi states: We at FAPA strongly
agree with the CTC on their views on cross-Strait relations,
especially with their view that Taiwans future should
be determined peacefully and that the people of Taiwan have
the right to determine their own future. After all, the
right of self-determination is the ultimate cornerstone
of a democratic society; it is the ultimate demonstration
of the free will of a people.
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