The Curse
of the Shanghai Communique
4 March 2002 NEWSWEEK
By Parris H. Chang
Last week President George W. Bush arrived in Beijing
30 years to the day after Richard Nixon landed in the Chinese capital
for what he called "a week that changed the world." By all
accounts, there were neither surprises nor important results from Bush's
talks with Chinese leaders. Nixon, however, really did change the world-without
specifying who was to benefit from the change.
THE WAY NIXON AND his national-security adviser, Henry Kissinger, humbled
themselves before Chairman Mao Zedong reminded many in China and abroad
of the tribute-bearing foreign emissaries of previous centuries paying
homage to Chinese emperors. At the end of his trip, Nixon and Prime
Minister Zhou Enlai signed the now celebrated Shanghai Communique, agreeing
to "make progress toward the normalization of relations "
and committing the United States to the notion of "one China,"
including Taiwan. The two sides had some differences. Beijing asserted
that "Taiwan is a province of China" and that "the liberation
of Taiwan is China's internal affair in which no other country has the
right to interfere." Washington more gently reaffirmed that a peaceful
settlement of the Taiwan question was a U.S. "interest."
When Jimmy Carter established full diplomatic ties with the People's
Republic of China on Jan. 2, 1979, he accepted Beijing's definition
of one China and cut off diplomatic relations with the Republic of China
on Taiwan. This treatment of a long-term ally infuriated Congress; it
quickly passed the Taiwan Relations Act, committing the United States
to help provide for Taiwan's defense-and putting Beijing on notice that
any use of coercion against Taiwan would be a threat to regional peace
and "of grave concern to the United States."
The Taiwan Relations Act has preserved peace in the Taiwan Strait for
a generation. It has done so by providing security and defense assistance
to the island, enabling its people to move ahead with confidence on
economic development and democratic reform in spite of China's refusal
to renounce the use of force. The law's important security provisions
have been reiterated and reaffirmed by congressional resolutions on
many occasions since 1979. And the U.S. government acted on them when
it dispatched two carrier battle groups to the waters near Taiwan in
March 1996, after China test-fired missiles and used the threat of force
to interrupt Taiwan's first popular presidential election.
On the other hand, the one-China policy initiated by Nixon three decades
ago is obsolete and should be changed. Taiwan and its friends in the
U.S. Congress have gone to painstaking lengths to remind everyone that
Taiwan is a sovereign state and a democracy whose people have gradually
come to identify themselves as Taiwanese rather than Chinese. The victories
of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party in the presidential
election of March 2000 and the legislative elections of December 2001
are strong indications that the island's 23 million people do not wish
to live under communist rule and want to determine their own destiny.
It is time for the United States to adjust to this new reality. There
is no reason for Washington to believe that Taiwan's unification with
China is desirable or inevitable. The Shanghai Communique and other
subsequent U.S.-China agreements do not commit Washington to reunification-and
democratic changes in Taiwan have precluded it. Former president Bill
Clinton was wrong to espouse democracy and freedom in China and then
commit the United States to oppose the right of Taiwan, a democratic
and open society, to determine its own future. The historical record
shows that when the United States has given Taiwan strong support, China
has engaged in cross-Strait talks; when the United States has appeared
weak, however, as when Clinton endorsed China's anti-independence policy,
Beijing has been emboldened to bully Taiwan.
President George W. Bush has taken a correct first step by spurning
his predecessor's policy of appeasement. People in Taiwan are greatly
encouraged and reassured by his pledge "to do whatever it takes
to help Taiwan defend itself" and his assurance to Japan's Diet
last week that "America will remember our commitments to the people
on Taiwan." If that is so, Taiwan will be able to engage with China
as an equal partner and from a position of strength as a sovereign state.
As an economic counterbalance to China, the United States also should
explore the possibility of a free-trade agreement with Taiwan. With
Taiwan and China as members of the World Trade Organization, and their
economic and trades ties expanding further, Chinese leaders may see
China's larger interests served by cooperation and economic integration
with Taiwan rather than by political conflict and military saber-rattling.
Taiwan has become a democracy largely because the United States did
much to promote and foster the forces of democracy there. Shouldn't
the United States accept that outcome and recognize Taiwan as a sovereign
nation?
Chang is president of the Taiwan Institute for Political, Economic
and Strategic Studies, and chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations
of the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan's Parliament
