The noted US academic Bruce Herschensohn warned Saturday that China's plan to draft an anti-secession law amounts to change in the cross-strait status quo, a subversive move that could test Taiwan's limits and put a strain on relations with its allies.
Herschensohn, a former deputy special assistant to former US president Richard Nixon and a member of the Reagan transition team, said the anti-secession draft law may negate Taiwan's sovereignty if it is enacted.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"The anti-secession law is a very serious problem, and what may be even more serious is the possibility of [Taiwan] losing diplomatic relations [with its allies]," he said.
Herschensohn did not predict how the US State Department will react to Beijing's anti-succession law, but he believed that the US government will have the courage to say that China is unilaterally changing the status quo.
Herschensohn also believes that US President George W. Bush's pledge to protect Taiwan remains unchanged, despite the US military commitments in Iraq and elsewhere.
"On April 25, 2001, President Bush said that he will do whatever is necessary to defend Taiwan. He made the statement aloud in public," Herschensohn said.
"As long as he does not retract the statement, the pledge is still valid. And I can't imagine him turning his back on Taiwan," he added.
Herschensohn also said he had little doubt that the US would defend Taiwan in the event of a military conflict with China.
"I am convinced that the US will come to Taiwan's aid immediately if China attacks. There is no possibility that the US will withdraw its pledge. If the US does that, it will not be the US I have known all my life. It will do away with our traditions. It will do away with all these things that all the presidents have said since 1949. It will suddenly negate everything that we have built up including President Bush's passion in seeing democracy develop all over the world," Herschensohn said.
Regrettably, Herschensohn said, the "one-China" concept has been intentionally misinterpreted over time by the US State Department. The flaw in understanding the term stems from an erroneous interpretation of the 1972 Shanghai Communique signed by Nixon.
Herschensohn revealed that Nixon, upset by the US's switching of diplomatic recognition from the ROC to the PRC, wrote a letter to the then President Jimmy Carter five days after Carter gave a speech on Dec. 15, 1978 about the upcoming communique.
"Nixon sent the letter to tell President Carter the risks he is imposing on Taiwan," Herschensohn said. "President Nixon wrote at the end of the letter: `I am not writing this for the record, I am writing this because I want you to know those risks.'"
But the "one China" principle and the "one country, two systems" formula do not address the current political reality anymore, and viable alternatives are not being thought up because of the Bush administration's preoccupation with the war on terror, Herschensohn said.
"It is a policy of postponement. It is like postponing something that has to be eventually solved. The resolution has to fall on the side of freedom for Taiwan. But we need China to help us in the war on terror and we'd like to say China has helped us," he said.
Herschensohn also cast a positive view on US-Taiwan relations after the resignation of US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who "represents the bureaucracy more than the president," he said.
"I think Taiwan will be better off with Condoleezza Rice [as US secretary of state] who has immediate access to the President Bush."
Also see story:
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS