*EPF302 04/25/01
Bush Taiwan Comments Generate Questions on Capitol Hill
(Hearing on U.S.-China relations after Hainan) (650)
By Nadine Leavitt Siak
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Congressional concerns over how to maintain stable U.S.-China relations were overtaken by more immediate questions regarding President Bush's comments about Taiwan on a television news show April 25.

On the ABC news show "Good Morning America," President Bush said the United States would do "whatever it took" to defend Taiwan from an attack from mainland China.

President Bush has also announced that he intends to end the U.S. policy of annually reviewing Taiwan's defense needs and instead carry out such reviews -- and the attendant sales of U.S. arms to Taiwan -- on an "as-needed" basis.

At a hearing of the House of Representatives International Relations Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific April 25, Representative Gary L. Ackerman (Democrat of New York) said that with the White House announcement on the weapons decision for Taiwan earlier in the week, "the Bush Administration sent a strong signal that the U.S. will continue to uphold our legal responsibility to help Taiwan to defend itself."

"But this morning we woke to a very dramatic shift in U.S. policy," Ackerman said. "I fear that in the course of two days we have moved from deliberate strategic ambiguity to strategic confusion with regard to U.S. policy."

"What does 'as needed' mean?," Ackerman asked. Who decides how often these 'as needed' reviews take place? What is the role of Congress in this process? ... What does 'whatever it takes' mean?"

"And did he just singularly revoke the existing laws -- the Taiwan Relations Act? Does this mean there's a new military relationship with Taiwan?," Ackerman continued.

"If Taiwan is attacked, are we at war?," he asked.

"The President," Ackerman said, "has made Taiwan less secure, not more secure."

"It is my hope that as we move forward in our relationship with China, that we will be clear-eyed in our strategy, sensible in our passions, and measured in our rhetoric. I do not think the President's new China policy meets that test," Ackerman concluded.

Representative Tom Lantos (Democrat of California), on the other hand, commended President Bush for his "singular and significant statement."

Calling the Bush's morning comments "straightforward and courageous," Lantos added, "we have now removed any doubt" regarding U.S. commitments to Taiwan.

"I believe the time has come to go beyond the deliberate and studied ambiguity that we have employed for so long," Lantos said.

Nicholas Lardy, Interim Director and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, testified that the U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity regarding commitments to Taiwan has been "a key part" of maintaining stability across the Taiwan Strait.

"An iron-clad guarantee of Taiwan security" similar to Bush's comments that morning, Lardy said, can mean "you run the risk that you precipitate the very event that you're trying to avoid."

David Shambaugh, director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University, testified that the weapons package Bush approved for Taiwan earlier in the week "strikes me as absolutely perfect.... [the Bush Administration] did exactly the right thing."

But, Shambaugh added, "If [Bush] spoke correctly this morning on the program ... it would de facto reconstitute the mutual security treaty with Taiwan ... [and] there would be cause for serious concern."

Shambaugh noted, however, that "in the past Bush has confused the phrases 'Taiwan self-defense' with 'defending Taiwan'." He suggested that perhaps Bush misspoke, and the comments made that morning "may not have made a conscious departure" from standard U.S. policy.

Representative Jeff Flake (Republican of Arizona) said the fact that they felt a need to "parse" President Bush's statements showed that perhaps the "strategic ambiguity" of U.S. policy towards Taiwan continues.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
NNNN