from CHINA NEWS, 16 August 1999
U.S. presidential frontrunner George W. Bush said he might use force to defend Taiwan against aggression from China if he were elected to the White House.
"We need to be very resolute about our position when it comes to Taiwan," the Texas governor said in a CNN television interview.
Rival Republican presidential aspirants Elizabeth Dole and John McCain also voiced support for Taiwan in separate U.S. television interviews.
Bush, the son and namesake of the former president, said U.S. President Bill Clinton should make it clear that the United States will "adhere to the spirit of, and the law, of the Taiwan Relations Act."
That statute is ambiguous on the use of U.S. force in defense of Taiwan. But asked whether it would compel him to call in troops, Bush said: "It could. We need to honor our commitments in the Far East."
Tensions have escalated alarmingly since Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui declared on July 9 that cross-strait relations are "special state-to-state" relations. Beijing has taken that to be a move toward Taiwan independence, even though Lee specifically denies that is his intent.
Bush, who was in Iowa for an unofficial Republican "straw poll," criticized Clinton's policy of constructive engagement with Beijing, though he backed efforts to improve trade relations with China.
"The president has made a mistake of calling China a strategic partner," he said. "I think he sent bad signals to China that say, 'Well, if you decide to move aggressively against Taiwan, we won't act, necessarily.'"
"The next president needs to understand that China, while we can find some areas of agreement such as opening their markets, that they need to be viewed as a competitor, and a strategic competitor," he said.
"We need to be tough and firm."
Bush's father, who was defeated by Clinton in the 1992 presidential race, was the top U.S. representative in China in the 1970s.
Elizabeth Dole, wife of former U.S. Senate majority leader Robert Dole, said she would use U.S. forces if necessary to defend Taiwan from Chinese military attack.
"President Dole would do so," she said when asked in a television interview if she would deploy the U.S. military to defend Taiwan.
Dole, who came third in the Iowa straw poll behind fellow Republicans George W. Bush and Steve Forbes, said she would seek to unite U.S. allies to beat back any Chinese strike if needed.
"I think that the more that we can specify up front exactly what we expect ... and be very firm about what we would do, the less chance that we would ever have to go to that particular position," she said on the NBC program "Meet the Press."
McCain, a Republican U.S. senator from the state of Arizona, warned China against taking any military action against Taiwan, saying the consequences would be severe.
In an interview with "Fox News Sunday" McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said "China has to understand that the United States of America will not allow them to carry out acts of aggression in a military fashion which will jeopardize everything in Asia."
Asked if he thought China would take action against Taiwan, McCain said: "I hope they have the good sense to realize the consequences will be so severe there is nothing they can gain from it."
Chinese officials have made clear they are considering military action to punish the recent controversial assertions of statehood by Taiwan.
Since the United States switched its diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, all U.S. presidents have embraced so-called strategic ambiguity to avoid specifying what Washington would do if Beijing carried out threats to attack.
Copyright 1999 China News
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