雖然是為了美國在亞太地區的利益,可是美國媒體民眾支持台灣,絕不是著眼利益因素,而在於民主台灣的政權和平轉移。
美國宣佈賣武器給台灣,乃居於中國與台灣的武力平衡考量,雖然在柴油潛水艇方面,尚未得到荷蘭、德國的互應,這是美國與歐盟之間有著NMD的爭執所致。
請參考英文報導:
2001.04.25/BBC
NEWS
Plans
by US President George W Bush to sell weapons including eight diesel-powered
submarines to Taiwan have received an embarrassing setback at the
hands of European governments.
Neither the Germans
nor the Dutch, who have sown up the market in diesel submarines, are
willing to allow the sale of the subs to Taiwan.
That leaves Mr Bush
in the unusual position of having promised to sell technology his
country does not control, and may have difficulty supplying.
US Government officials
implied recently that the Germans or the Dutch may be able to supply
the controversial subs.
However Juergen Rohweder,
a spokesman for the German shipbuilders, HDV, told the BBC: "We
have not been asked by the US or the Taiwanese Governments to sell
the submarines."
He admitted the company
would like a share of the $1.1bn deal, but "the German Government
rules are clear," he said: "It's not allowed."
Michael Steiner, senior
foreign policy adviser to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, was equally
categorical.
"No application
has been made and it would never be approved," he said.
German and Dutch rules
forbid arms exports to regions in crisis, and few relationships are
as tense as that between China and Taiwan, which Beijing regards as
a renegade province.
布希發表軍售項目之後,於4月25日接受ABC所屬的美國早安訪問,更打破美國20年來對台的模糊政策,明確要不惜一切代價保護台灣,不受中共武力攻擊,他的直率反應,可以想像布希總統累積已久的戰略構想,亦是直接反射美國人對台灣長期受中共打壓的印象。在下列英文稿中,亦有反對的聲音,麻州民主黨參議員John
F. Kerry 就認為,布希放棄糢糊政策會導致美中關係的尖銳化,他反問,如果台灣主動攻擊中共,是否亦要派軍參戰?
請參考英文報導:
April 26, 2001
Bush
Tells Beijing the U.S. Is Ready to Defend Taiwan
By DAVID
E. SANGER
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., April 25
President
Bush, offering a more explicit commitment to Taiwan than his recent
predecessors, said in a television interview broadcast today that
if the island came under attack from China, he would order "whatever
it took" to help Taiwan defend itself.
Mr.
Bush did not go so far as to say he would send American forces into
battle with China. During his presidential campaign, however, he questioned
the wisdom of the policy of maintaining "strategic ambiguity"
about how the United States would react if hostilities broke out across
the Taiwan Strait, and said repeatedly that, in contrast, his administration
would be "clear about Taiwan."
While
the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act commits the United States to help Taiwan
defend itself, presidents have deliberately kept vague how they would
respond in the case of an armed conflict. The policy was designed
so as not to encourage Taiwan to be bolder in its own statements,
and to contain the political factions on the island that have argued
for declaring independence, a move China says would prompt an armed
response.
Asked
on ABC's "Good Morning America" if the United States had
an obligation to defend Taiwan if it was attacked by China, Mr. Bush
replied: "Yes, we do, and the Chinese must understand that. Yes,
I would."
The
interviewer, Charlie Gibson, pressed further, asking, "With the
full force of American military?"
Mr.
Bush said, "Whatever it took to help Taiwan defend theirself."
He did not elaborate.
Mr. Bush's comments
seemed to trigger some confusion on Capitol Hill and among China experts
over what the president meant and what signal he was sending to Taiwan.
But his aides said tonight he had chosen his words quite carefully.
Mr. Bush's national
security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, who traveled here with Mr. Bush
for a Republican fund-raising event, said tonight that he was not
changing policy. But she made clear that he was deliberate in his
choice of words. "What he said clearly is how seriously and resolutely
he takes this obligation," she said. "A secure Taiwan will
be better able to engage in a cross-straits dialogue."
The Taiwan Relations
Act says: The president is directed to inform the Congress promptly
of any threat to the security or the social or economic system of
the people on Taiwan and any danger to the interests of the United
States arising therefrom. The president and the Congress shall determine,
in accordance with constitutional processes, appropriate action by
the United States in response to any such danger.
Mr. Bush's statement
was part of what his aides say is a "rebalancing" of American
policy away from Beijing ?where Mr. Bush's aides believe President
Clinton veered ?and back toward Taiwan.
That is bound to gratify
the conservative wing of his party, which has grumbled that his arms
sales to Taiwan on Tuesday should have included the sophisticated
Aegis radar system. It is also sure to further inflame Beijing. In
that regard, it seemed similar to his statements about North Korea
in the first weeks of his presidency, when he appeared to turn his
back on missile talks that President Clinton had begun, to the discomfort
of South Korea's president, Kim Dae Jung, and take a harder line toward
the Communist regime in Pyongyang. Those comments essentially froze
peace talks between North and South Korea.
Earlier
today, Chinese officials denounced Mr. Bush's decision to sell destroyers,
submarines, helicopters and other military hardware to Taiwan even
though the Aegis had been excluded from the list. Admr. Joseph W.
Prueher, the American ambassador to Beijing, was summoned by the deputy
foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, and according to state television was
asked to tell Mr. Bush to "immediately withdraw this mistaken
decision and stop selling arms to Taiwan to avoid new grave damage
to China-U.S. relations."
Mr. Bush's statements
about Taiwan came in the course of a series of television interviews
marking the approach of his 100th day in office. The interviews were
taped at the White House on Tuesday, though they were broadcast just
before Mr. Bush came here for a rally in support of his tax plan and
his budget.
Within
hours of the broadcast the State Department said there had been no
change in the American policy. "Our policy hasn't changed today,
it didn't change yesterday, and it didn't change last year, it hasn't
changed in terms of what we have followed since 1979 with the passage
of the Taiwan Relations Act," Philip T. Reeker, a State Department
spokesman, told reporters today. "And the president was very
clear on our position, and I think he reiterated what we've always
said."
But to many of Mr. Bush's
own aides and allies, his statement today sounded much like what George
W. Bush the candidate had said, but not what past presidents including
his father or American diplomats had said in carefully worded statements.
Until
now, the essence of American policy has been to keep the peace by
keeping both sides guessing. Presidents from Richard Nixon to Bill
Clinton have wanted Beijing to believe that the United States would
defend Taiwan, but also to leave Taiwan wondering about the extent
of that commitment. Washington has always feared that if the Taiwanese
believed the American commitment to their security was ironclad, they
would be emboldened in their dealings with Beijing, perhaps to the
point of provoking a conflict.
But
Mr. Bush's advisers during the campaign said they viewed that policy
as outmoded. Taiwan is now a full-fledged democracy, they said, and
has elected a longtime opposition leader as the president. Moreover,
they argued that Beijing's military buildup in recent years made it
imperative for Washington to be more explicit about supporting the
island.
Outside experts on China
and Asia policy said that while Mr. Bush has changed the language,
he may not have changed the understanding of both sides about how
the United States would react.
"He covered both
sides of the argument," said Richard H. Solomon, president of
the United States Institute of Peace, and a longtime Republican foreign
policy adviser, though he has not advised this White House.
"He
said we'll defend Taiwan, but he doesn't want Taiwan to precipitate
a crisis," said Mr. Solomon, referring to comments Mr. Bush made
in an interview with CNN today.
Mr.
Solomon noted that "the big issue that's not being discussed
is whether Taiwan is to be dealt with as a military or a political
problem." President Nixon, he noted, had converted the Taiwaproblemn
issue to a political question when he opened up relations with Beijing.
Mao said at that time that Taiwan was a long-term problem, taking
the immediacy out of the issue of how it might reunify with China.
But
during Mr. Clinton's term, the conflict became remilitarized. President
Jiang Zemin made it clear, during Taiwan's 1996 presidential election,
that China would not wait indefinitely, and triggered a crisis by
conducting military tests off Taiwan's coast. Mr. Clinton sent two
carriers into the area, though not directly into the Taiwan Strait,
as a show of resolve. China backed off.
Mr.
Bush's comments triggered an immediate reaction on Capitol Hill. Senator
John F. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who is considered a possible
presidential contender in 2004, took to the Senate floor this afternoon
to speak out against Mr. Bush's comment on Taiwan.
"If
what the president said is in fact what he means or if it is indeed
the new policy of the United States, it has profound implications
for our country," Mr. Kerry said. "He made a far-reaching
comment this morning on the American defense of Taiwan, a comment
that suggests that without any consultation with Congress, without
any prior notice to the Congress, that a policy that has been in place
for 30 years is now being changed with implications that I believe
are serious."
Mr.
Kerry said that the United States had never said what it would do
if Beijing tried to use force to reclaim Taiwan because "we understood
the danger of doing so."
He said
that if Mr. Bush had decided to abandon the "so-called strategic
ambiguity," it was a "major policy change" that "serves
neither our interest nor Taiwan's."
Mr.
Kerry noted that any situation that resulted in the use of force across
the Taiwan Strait was unlikely to be black and white. "For example,
if China attacked in response to what it sees as a Taiwanese provocation
would we then respond?" he asked. "Apparently so, according
to President Bush."
Representative
Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat and member of the International
Relations Committee, said that Mr. Bush had apparently confused a
policy of providing Taiwan with defensive weapons with a broader defense
commitment.
"Has
this become a unilateral defense treaty?" Mr. Ackerman asked.
" `Whatever it takes' means you will do anything to defend Taiwan,"
Mr. Ackerman said. "Does it mean that if Taiwan attacks China,
we are at war with China?"
事實上,台灣不可能主動挑起台海之戰是人盡皆知的道理,此位仁兄竟然忘了中共坐大的事實,乃因為美國對中共大幅容忍所引起,今日之中共能壯大,亦是美國於中共建交之後的發酵,台灣受到矮化,亦是美中的熱流,引發台灣外交上的孤立。
三十年來台灣還能自立自強,峙立亞洲民主國的典範,這種傲人的成績,的確值得讓布希政府重新考慮台美政策。