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Observers were quick to note that there was no mention of the Taiwan Relations Act – the U.S. law that provides a measure of strategic protection to Taiwan – in the statement Obama signed with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Nov. 17. While Obama did refer to the act at a press conference in Beijing, he avoided mentioning it while responding to a student’s question about arms sales to Taiwan during his “town hall meeting” in Shanghai.
Taiwanese nerves were soothed somewhat when Raymond Burghardt, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan – which serves as a virtual embassy on the island – flew to Taiwan from the United States to meet Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-Jeou on Nov. 24 and brief him on the Obama visit to China.
Burghardt assured Ma that U.S. policy toward Taiwan remained unchanged. He stressed that the Taiwan Relations Act remained the central document in Taiwan-U. S. relations and that the United States has never taken a position with regard to Taiwan’s political status. Further, Burghardt told Taiwan media that the United States was still considering the sale of F-16 C/D fighter aircraft to the island.
The opposition Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan was critical of Obama’s failure to stress the Taiwan Relations Act in his meetings on the mainland. The act passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 1979 guarantees U.S. protection should Taiwan be subject to any form of coercion that would jeopardize the security of its people. It also allows the United States to sell defensive weapons to the island.
The day before his meeting with Ma, Burghardt had visited DPP Chairman Tsai Ing-Wen. The two reportedly had a serious 70-minute debate as to whether the U.S. government is inclining toward the mainland view with regard to the Taiwan issue.
Joseph Wu, former head of Taiwan’s representative office in Washington, D.C. and former minister of the official Mainland Affairs Council under the DPP leadership, stated that the Sino-U.S. joint statement of Nov 17, which says “respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is at the core” of U.S.-China relations was damaging to Taiwan.
Wu said this statement could be interpreted as saying that Taiwan is part of mainland China; if so, it would be a big step backward in U.S.-Taiwan policy. He said the joint statement violated the fourth article of the Taiwan Relations Act, which stipulates that under U.S. law Taiwan should be treated as a sovereign entity. Wu called for U.S. authorities to publicly clarify this.
Wu pointed out that one of the Six Assurances given by the United States to Taiwan in 1982 – after the United States signed a communiqué with China promising to reduce arms sales to Taiwan – states that the United States would not formally recognize Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan. Although the United States acknowledged the one-China policy, it did not endorse the interpretation of “one China” put forth by the People’s Republic of China, according to the communiqué.
Still, after his discussion with the DPP, Burghardt told Ma that the U.S. government had not altered its policy toward Taiwan. He further explained that the English term “acknowledge” did not mean “recognize” or “accept.”
Burghardt said that the sentence in the Nov. 17 joint statement mentioning “respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” was actually referring to Tibet and China’s western province of Xinjiang rather than to Taiwan.
However, the Hong Kong-based ChinaReviewNews.com. pointed out that the names of Tibet and Xinjiang did not appear anywhere in the long joint statement, while the name Taiwan appeared in the very paragraph where this troublesome sentence was written.
President Ma voiced his concern over a pending arms purchase from the United States, saying he hoped to buy the F-16 C/D fighter jets as soon as possible to strengthen Taiwan’s air defense.
The United States reportedly put aside a decision on the sale until after Obama’s China visit. Analysts have said that arms sales to Taiwan are likely to resume next year, but will be timed to avoid an expected visit to the United States by Chinese President Hu Jintao.
A final concern to Taiwan is the resumption of talks on a trade and investment framework agreement that have been suspended for two years. Burghardt said that U.S. trade officials would be visiting Taiwan in December to move forward on this agreement.
If the arms deal and the trade agreement go ahead in the coming months, the Taiwanese will be more confident that the Obama policy of “change” does not apply to them. If they do not, anxiety and uncertainty will remain concerning the current U.S. administration’s commitment to the protection of Taiwan.
