~1998
1999:
Jan. - June,
July - Dec.
2000: Jan. - Mar. , Apr. - June , July - Sept.
Jan. - March 2000
Clarity on Taiwan? By Thomas J.
Christensen and Philip Yang
(March 2000) Following is a transcript of the email exchange between
Prof. Thomas Christensen and Prof. Philip Yang regarding Prof. Christensen's
OpEd "Clarity
on Taiwan" in the Washington Post on March 20: …there are two major
problems with a policy of clarity on the Taiwan issue. First, the burden of
proof of the definition of Taiwan independence will fall on the U.S. side.
Such a situation might introduce another major element of ambiguity and
uncertainty into the cross-strait situation.
Asian Wall Street Journal: US sold out Taiwan
(Taiwan Headlines,
March 30, 2000) In a March 29 editorial, the Asian Wall Street Journal
contended that there is little cause for blind optimism in the current state
of cross-strait affairs, even though American officials have described ROC
president-elect Chen Shui-bian's behavior as "prudent" and
"positive," and the provocative saber-rattling of the PRC appears
to have subsided.
When a Giant Falls By Julian Baum
with Dan Biers
(Far Eastern
Economic Review, April 6, 2000) The prospects for the Kuomintang have never
looked worse. Since Taiwan's ruling party slumped to defeat in the March 18
presidential election, the office of prominent KMTmember Wei Yung has been
inundated with faxes and e-mail messages from supporters around the world.
Taiwan’s China Dare
(Economist, March 25-31, 2000) This was meant to be the Pacific century, yet
how suddenly the language of commerce in the world’s fastest-growing region
can give way to talk of war. Taiwan’s election, which has ended 50 years of
Nationalist rule and picked as the island’s next president Chen Shui-bian,
the candidate of a hitherto pro-independence party, is a clear rebuff to
China’s Communists, who claim Taiwan as their own.
Taiwan Stands Up
(Economist, March 25 - 31, 2000) After his victory in the presidential election,
Chen Shui-bian is offering an olive branch across the Taiwan Strait. China
doesn’t know how to accept it. Tactically outmanoeuvred already by Mr Chen,
the Communists in Beijing will probably sit tight and wait for what he lays
on the table after his inauguration, the better to test his “sincerity”.
The Meaning of 'One China' By Bates
Gill
(Washington Times, March 23, 2000) To be sure, the "one China"
principle has had to expand to account for Taipei's desire for international
"space" and the government's claims of sovereignty over the island,
particularly over the past 10 years.
Nervous in Beijing By Jim
Hoagland
(Washington Post, March
23, 2000) After last weekend, the truth about China is hidden in plain sight:
Jiang Zemin and his cohorts now run only slightly ahead of the tides of
change that will make their Communist rule history.
Amid the Dangers: Opportunity By Michel
Oksenberg
(Newsweek
International, March 27, 2000) Chen has political capital to spend. His
unassailable commitment to Taiwan's autonomy may give him greater political flexibility
to expand economic, cultural and technological relations. As that process
unfolds, it may be possible to reach compromises on sensitive political
issues.
Clarity on Taiwan By Thomas J.
Christensen
(Washington Post, March
20, 2000) The problem with the ambiguity strategy is not its logic or its
track record but its recent failure to prevent a spiral of tensions across
the Taiwan Strait and its fragility in American domestic politics.
2025 Vision: A China Bent On Asian Dominance
(Washington Post, March
17, 2000) Imagine a booming China of 1.5 billion people that has intimidated
Taiwan into effective submission, persuaded Korea and Japan to close the U.S.
bases on their territory, and made a deal with New Delhi to divide Asia into
spheres of Chinese and Indian influence at America's expense. What sort of
China is that?
Making the Best of a Tough Job By
Stephen J. Yates
(Taipei Times, March
16, 2000) Taiwan's most competitive and tumultuous presidential election fast
approaches. Finally there will be a poll with no margin of error, and for the
first time in history Taiwan will have a president-elect awaiting peaceful
transfer of power from a sitting president.
Crisis in the Making? Experts Differ on Whether Rising Tensions Will
Lead to a U.S.-China Clash
(Washington Post, March
16, 2000) When Taiwan held its first democratic presidential election four
years ago, China fired ballistic missiles over the island 100 miles from its
coast. The United States responded with its biggest show of force in Asia
since the Vietnam War, sending two aircraft carriers and 14 other warships to
Taiwan.
What the Election Signifies for Democracy
By Larry Diamond
(Taipei Times, March
15, 2000) In the days leading up to Taiwan's second direct presidential
election, political reform is taking the spotlight away from cross-strait
concerns, according to a US observer.
Handling China
(Editorial, Washington
Post, March 14, 2000) United States needs to stand behind Taiwan. Last month
China threatened to bring about "reunification" by force if the
Taiwanese dragged their feet about negotiating it; then, when it looked as
though some in Congress might respond by opposing PNTR, the Chinese repeated
their stock line that trade and Taiwan relations should be treated
separately.
What Is Beijing 's 'Policy Paper' Trying to Convey?
By James A. Kelly
(International Herald
Tribune, March 13, 2000) Relations between China and the United States are on
a downslope again, after improving over the last six months.
How China Will Take Taiwan By Robert
Kagan
(Washington Post, March
12, 2000) In fact, a major conflict is looming. China's White Paper on Taiwan
signaled a new phase of impatience in Beijing, and it wasn't the only sign.
President Jiang Zemin has declared in recent months that he intends to make
reunification of the motherland his legacy..
'One-China' and International Law By
Hungdah Chi
(United Daily News, March 1, 2000) The White Paper's statement that the
Chinese Communists founded the People's Republic of China in 1949 is true.
However, it is noteworthy that Beijing used the word "founded"
here.
Taiwan Displays Its Feeble Fleet By John
Pomfret
(Washington Post, Feb. 25,
2000) As China threatens to attack Taiwan if it does not begin reunification
talks soon, a visit to Taiwan's main naval base at Tsoying, just north of the
big port of Kaohsiung on the island's southwest coast, provides an important
perspective on the standoff between Taipei and Beijing.
'Blue Team' Draws a Hard Line on Beijing
By Robert G. Kaiser and Steven Mufson
(Washington Post, Feb.
22, 2000) "Blue Team"--a loose alliance of members of Congress,
congressional staff, think tank fellows, Republican political operatives,
conservative journalists, lobbyists for Taiwan, former intelligence officers
and a handful of academics, all united in the view that a rising China poses
great risks to America's vital interests. Though little noticed, the Blue
Team has had considerable success.
China's Conditional Multilaterialism and Great
Power Entente  By Jing-dong Yuan
(Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, January 2000) China
now recognizes that multilateral engagement is unavoidable and indeed can be
useful in advancing China's interests. China's embrace of multilateralism,
however, varies depending upon the particular forum and specific issue.
Patterns in China's Use of Force: Evidence from History and Doctrinal
Writings By Mark Burles and Abram Shulsky
(RAND, Project Air Force, MR-1160-AF, 2000 ) The Chinese appear to believe
that they possess tactics and methods that make it feasible for them to use
force even when the overall military balance is very unfavorable to them,
i.e., in situations in which their use of force might otherwise have been
thought to be very unlikely.
China Internet: Shot in the Foot? - Maybe
(Asia Times, Jan. 27, 2000) ''Mainland clamps down on Net'', ''Beijing
Tightens Its Grip On Use of Internet in China'', were two of the headlines on
stories in the regional press of the past couple of days reporting on new
rules and regulations governing Internet companies operating in China and
Internet users.
Status Quo Approach to Taiwan Needs Review
By Hisahiko Okazaki
(Daily Yomiuri, January 24, 2000) "Maintaining the status quo"
seems to be the latest catchphrase in discussions concerning Taiwan. If one
asks those who call themselves realist-either in China, Taiwan or the United
State-what they most want to see in Taiwan's international relations, this phrase
will be on most of their lips.
Village Democracy By Susan V.
Lawrence
(Far Eastern Economic Review, Jan. 27, 2000) Direct elections are becoming
more open in the Chinese countryside, but will those reforms extend to higher
levels of government? The Communist Party has traditionally resisted
answering to any body other than itself.
Taiwan Planned Counterattack During 1996 Crisis
(Liberty Times, Jan. 19, 2000) In a new book, former Beijing correspondent
for the New York Times Patrick Tyler writes that the ROC was prepared to
mount a counteroffensive against the PRC in 1996, when the PRC was test-firing
missiles into the waters near Taiwan.
Tighter Controls, Less in Control By
Willy Wo-Lap Lam
(South China Morning Post, Jan. 12, 2000) In China, control is the name of
the game. From 1949 onwards, the Chinese Communist Party claimed virtually
absolute control via indoctrination and "tools of the proletariat"
such as the army and the security apparatus.
Dealing With the China-Taiwan Puzzle
By Larry Wortzel
(Washington Times, Jan. 11, 2000) As the guarantor of regional security in
Asia, the United States should be paying closer attention to the military
buildup and strident anti-Taiwan rhetoric of the People's Republic of China
(PRC).
US Commitment to People, Not Politician
(United Daily News, Jan. 11, 2000) United States Assistant Secretary of State
for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Stanley Roth recently stated publicly that
no matter who wins the upcoming presidential election in Taiwan, Washington
would accept the results.
Foreign Policy Promise and Problems
By Richard N. Haass
(IntellectualCapital.com, Jan. 6, 2000) What developments will dominate
the international agenda over the next 12 months? And what will it mean for
the United States and American foreign policy? Such questions are easier to
pose than answer.
Human Rights in Taiwan: Is the Battle Won?
By Brian Kennedy
(Taipei Times, Jan. 4, 2000) The Taiwanese public has become quite blase
towards the issue of human rights. The public consensus is that the "bad
old days" of martial law and all that it brought are over. In reality,
the state of human rights and civil liberties here in Taiwan is not good.
What civil liberties we have rest on very weak foundations.
Parting With Party Business?
(China Post (Taipei), Jan. 4, 2000) Kuomintang presidential candidate Lien
Chan said on Sunday that if he wins the March election, he will end the KMT's
profit-making businesses which dominate the nation's economy.
Party? What Party? We're Going Shopping
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
(New York Times, Jan. 1, 2000) President Jiang Zemin spoke here of China's
glorious future and a few adventurous souls ventured to the Great Wall, but
most Beijingers spent the ticking over of the calendar doing what average
folks here do when given half a chance: they went shopping.
Pacific
Forum, CSIS
China-Taiwan: Wait and See By Ralph
A. Cossa
(Pacific Forum CSIS,
PacNet 13, March 31, 2000) Now what? Now that Taiwan has elected Chen
Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as its next President,
despite heavy-handed Chinese efforts to discourage such an outcome, what does
Beijing do next?
China Waits While Taiwan Acts By Ralph
A. Cossa
(Taipei Times, March
29, 2000) China has not made the cross-strait situation any easier by its
pre-election outbursts, but now that Chen is firmly in place, it seems they
are ready to talk, just as long as a few comforting fictions are kept in
place by the incoming administration.
Dangerous Misconceptions About Taiwan
By Robert M. Hathaway
(Pacific Forum, CSIS, PacNet 8, February 25, 2000) I have just returned
from a visit to Taiwan, where I talked with a broad range of politicians, officials,
academics, and policy analysts.
U.S. Policy in Northeast Asia: On the Right Track?
By Ralph A. Cossa
(Pacific Forum, CSIS, PacNet 4, Jan. 28, 2000) As we enter the Year of
the Dragon, U.S. bilateral relations with key states in Northeast Asia
generally appear on track.
New
York Times
One-China Fallacy By June Teufel
Dreyer
(New York Times, March 27, 2000) The "one China" concept was false
from the instant Henry A. Kissinger seized upon it as a convenient ruse. The cost
of this Faustian bargain is becoming apparent. China threatens to use force
to annex Taiwan, asserting that the United States, having accepted the
one-China principle, has no right to interfere in its internal affairs.
China Is All Bluster on Taiwan (for Now)
By David Shambaugh
(New York Times, March
6, 2000) The furor over China's threat to use force against Taiwan if
negotiations toward reunification are indefinitely delayed has put the
Clinton administration in a diplomatic jam.
China's Latest Theft By Tong Yi
(New York Times, Feb. 16, 2000) Reports that the Chinese government
intercepted $25,000 in foreign donations intended for the families of those
killed in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests may have shocked some, but not
me.
China Arrests a Scholar
(Editorial, New York Times, Jan. 18, 2000) In a country where freedom of
information is not respected, possession of any kind of information can be
prosecuted by the government. China has demonstrated this by arresting Yongyi
Song in Beijing.
Taipei
Times
China's Local Elections Contrast with Taiwan's
By James A Robinson
(Taipei Times, Feb. 1, 2000) The Communist Party is experimenting with
election of local officials in the same way the KMT did during embryonic stages
of Taiwan's democracy.
Clinton's final State of the Union
By Stephen J. Yates
(Taipei Times, Jan. 24, 2000) Under Clinton's leadership, US relations with
China have been on a dizzying zig-zag course from treating China's leaders as
"dictators" and "butchers" to envisioning them as
"constructive strategic partners."
Global Trends Help Shape Cross-Strait Relations
By Hsiao Bi-khim
(Taipei Times, Jan. 12, 2000) The international environment in this new
century will be dominated by a number of structural contradictions that will
create a new set of challenges. The end of the cold war has not necessarily
brought about sustainable peace, and it is essential for Taiwan to seek a
balance within the context of these contradictions if it is to survive. In
practical terms, Taiwan should pursue the following directions in
cross-strait relations: 1) Seizing the benefits of globalization; 2) Avoiding
the pitfalls of nationalism; 3) Cautiously maneuver in the US-China balance
of power.
LA
Times
Realism Tempers the One-China Principle
By Tom Plate
(LA Times, March 29,
2000) Since the big stir of the Taiwan election earlier this month, the East
Asian front is actually a bit quieter. Neither Beijing nor Taiwan appears
ready to precipitate World War III -- not yet, anyway.
Democracy Upsets One-China Policy By
Robert A. Manning
(LA Times, March 26,
2000) At first glance, the stunning election of Taiwan opposition leader Chen
Shui-bian, overturning five decades of rule by the Kuomintang, appears to be
a political earthquake that could result in a military conflict with mainland
China.
The Historical Basis for a Free Taiwan
By Maurice Meisner
(LA Times, March 26,
2000) It might have been expected that the disintegration of the Nationalist
Party, or Kuomintang, against whom the Communists had fought a long and
bloody civil war that ended with Chiang's flight to Taiwan in 1949, would
have brought rejoicing in Beijing.
Taiwan Has Anti-Corruption Fever By Tom
Plate
(LA Times, March 22,
2000) In country after country that has benefited from new wealth, a rising, assertive
middle class inevitably demands political reforms. This was as true in South
Korea in 1997, when voters chose long-time anti-establishment figure Kim Dae
Jung as president over the establishment's candidate, as it was in Taiwan
this past weekend, when the longtime anti-establishment figure Chen Shui-bian
prevailed.
Interveiw: Joseph Prueher By
Henry Chu
(LA Times, May 15,
2000) Q: What is the proper U.S. role in China-Taiwan relations? A: Sen.
[Jesse] Helms [R-N.C.], in my confirmation hearings, made a statement that I
use a lot, because it's plain language: "You go tell the leadership in
China that we in the U.S. like and want to get along with the Chinese
people--we just don't want Taiwan to get kicked around.". . . In my
view, that's engagement. .
Inauspicious Signs for Kuomintang By
Jim Mann
(LA Times, Jan. 26, 2000) One of the first big developments of 2000 could
well be an epochal change in Chinese politics: the downfall of the
Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party. On March 18, Taiwan will hold presidential
elections. And as things stand now, the KMT--despite the abundant resources
it commands as one of the world's richest political parties--seems headed for
a historic defeat.
A Goldilocks Policy for China By Tom
Plate
(LA Times, Jan. 26, 2000) With Taiwan and the U.S. both electing presidents
this year, Washington must steer a 'just right' course with Beijing. America
needs a sense of balance about China. So here's an idea. Just as the U.S.
economy has been called a "Goldilocks" economy -- not so overheated
as to generate inflation, not so cool as to sink into recession -- America
needs something like a Goldilocks Policy for relating to China: neither too
chummy nor too aloof but just right.
Close Isn't Good Enough
(Editorial, LA Times, Jan. 20, 2000) The Pentagon blames a pair of
malfunctioning sensors for Tuesday's failure of a $100-million test of a
missile interceptor system that it hopes can defend the country against
intercontinental attack from rogue states.
China Snarls Again at 'Paper Tiger'
By Jim Mann
(LA Times, Jan. 19, 2000) In China's eyes, America looks like a "paper
tiger" once again. Paper tiger was the pithy phrase coined by Mao
Tse-tung to convey the notion that American military power was overestimated.
In the decades since the end of the Vietnam War and Mao's rapprochement with
the United States, the phrase fell out of use.
Another 'American Century'? The Challenge Is to Do
Good By William Pfaff
(International Herald Tribute, Jan. 3, 2000) In the current issue of The
National Interest, a Washington quarterly, Walter Russell Mead describes the
U.S. policy debate as one argued among Jeffersonians, Jacksonians, Wilsonians
and Hamiltonians.
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