30 March 2000
Text: Senate Approves March 28 Resolution on Taiwan Elections
(Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott introduces resolution) (1990) The Senate's leading Republican, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, and Democratic Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware urged their Senate colleagues March 28 to pass a resolution praising the successful democratic elections held in Taiwan ten days earlier. The bipartisan call from Lott, the Senate Majority Leader, and Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for support of Senate Concurrent Resolution 99 mirrored a similar effort the same day in the House of Representatives to honor the democratic elections in Taiwan, and to admonish China for using threatening language against Taiwan. The Senate approved the resolution. Following is the text from the Congressional Record: (begin text) CONGRATULATING THE PEOPLE OF TAIWAN AND REAFFIRMING U.S. POLICY (Senate - March 28, 2000) Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Con. Res. 99, submitted earlier today by me. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the concurrent resolution by title. The assistant legislative clerk read as follows: A concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 99) congratulating the people of Taiwan for the successful conclusion of Presidential elections on March 18, 2000, and reaffirming United States policy toward Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the concurrent resolution. Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, on March 18 the people of Taiwan went to the polls and chose their next president through a free and fair multiparty election. The winner of a close three-way race, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party, will be inaugurated in May. I had the pleasure of meeting with Mr. Chen in Washington in 1997 when he was the mayor of Taipei. I was impressed by his political smarts and his commitment to building a more democratic and prosperous Taiwan. I also found him to be genuinely committed to improving relations with the mainland. I believe that Taiwan's election provides a fresh opportunity for the people of Taiwan and the people of China to reach out and resolve their differences peacefully through dialog on the basis of mutual respect. I hope that leaders on both sides of the Strait will seize this opportunity and begin to lay the foundation of trust, goodwill, and understanding which must precede true reconciliation. The inauguration of Chen will end the virtual monopoly of power the Nationalist Party has exercised for most of the past 50 years. This peaceful transition of power at the top of Taiwan's political system will mark the maturation of their democracy, and it is an event worthy of our profound respect and hearty congratulations. It was only 13 years ago that Taiwan lifted martial law and ushered in a new period of open political discourse and expanded civil liberty. Prior to that, Taiwan's leaders did not tolerate dissent and moved swiftly and sometimes ruthlessly to silence their critics. Taiwan's president-elect knows this well, because he got his start in politics as a young crusading lawyer working to promote transparency, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly. Taiwan's emergence as a genuine multiparty democracy is a significant development in the long history of China. It is all the more remarkable given the fact that China's leaders in Beijing have done their level best to intimidate Taiwan's voters and prevent them from exercising this fundamental right. I cannot help but wonder how average Chinese on the mainland must view Taiwan's remarkable transformation. On the one hand, the people of China have a deep devotion to national unity and apparently are prepared to use force against Taiwan if it were to declare its independence. As Zhang Yunling of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing explained to New York Times correspondent Elisabeth Rosenthal on March 20, `China was divided when it was weak, and now that it is getting strong again, people's nationalist feeling rises and they feel strongly it is time to reunite the country.' On the other hand, the people of China are beginning to form their own impressions of Taiwan, no longer content only to listen to the government's official propaganda demonizing the island. Some even admit publicly to a certain grudging admiration for Taiwan's accomplishments and hope their own government will do nothing to precipitate a crisis. As one 22-year-old Beijing University physics major told Rosenthal, `I think both sides will have to make adjustments to their policies. After all Taiwan is democratic now, and the people have exercised their right to choose a president.' Let me read the words of that university student again, `. . . the people have exercised their right to choose a president.' In America, we take democratic transitions of power for granted. But in China, and until recently on Taiwan, it was a revolutionary concept. And yet that is precisely what the people of Taiwan did on March 18. They changed their leadership through a peaceful, orderly, democratic process. They did so, by all accounts, because they were frustrated with corruption, cronyism, campaign finance abuses, and bureaucratic inefficiency. These are all faults that China's communist government has in spades. And with Internet use exploding in China, and with cross-straits commercial ties now in the tens of billions of dollars, there is no way that the people of China will not discover what is happening on Taiwan. And they may become inspired not only by the island's prosperity, but also by its peaceful democratic revolution. I predict they will begin to ask themselves, `How come we don't enjoy the same standard of living and the same political rights here on the mainland?' Taiwan's people are responsible for the island's miraculous transformation from authoritarian rule and poverty to democracy and prosperity. They deserve all of the credit. But the people of the United States have reason to feel a little bit of pride as well. If Taiwan wins the Oscar for Best Actor, then we at least get a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The United States commitment to Taiwan's security under the terms of the Taiwan Relations Act helped create the stable environment in which Taiwan has thrived. The other critical component of cross-Strait stability has been our adherence to a `One-China' policy, in which we maintain that disputes between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait must be settled peacefully, and that the future relationship between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan must be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of China and the people of Taiwan. Maintaining a peaceful, stable environment in the Taiwan Strait has fostered economic growth throughout East Asia. It has also aided the emergence of democratic societies in the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, and Taiwan. In the past decade, more people have come under democratic rule in East Asia than were liberated in Europe by the end of the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet Union. This remarkable accomplishment would not have been possible without United States leadership. Given all that Taiwan has accomplished in such a short span, I look forward to the future with renewed hope that someday all people of China will enjoy the rights and standard of living enjoyed by those fortunate few who live on Taiwan. Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 99) was agreed to. The preamble was agreed to. The concurrent resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows: S. Con. Res. 99 Whereas section 2(c) of the Taiwan Relations Act (Public Law 96-8) states `[t]he preservation and enhancement of the human rights of all the people on Taiwan' to be an objective of the United States; Whereas Taiwan has become a multiparty democracy in which all citizens have the right to participate freely in the political process; Whereas the people of Taiwan have, by their vigorous participation in electoral campaigns and public debate, strengthened the foundations of a free and democratic way of life; Whereas Taiwan successfully conducted a presidential election on March 18, 2000; Whereas President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan has actively supported the consolidation of democratic institutions and processes in Taiwan since 1988 when he became President; Whereas this election represents the first such transition of national office from one elected leader to another in the history of Chinese societies; Whereas the continued democratic development of Taiwan is a matter of fundamental importance to the advancement of United States interests in East Asia and is supported by the United States Congress and the American people; Whereas a stable and peaceful security environment in East Asia is essential to the furtherance of democratic developments in Taiwan and other countries, as well as to the protection of human rights throughout the region; Whereas since 1972 United States policy toward the People's Republic of China has been predicated upon, as stated in section 2(b)(3) of the Taiwan Relations Act, `the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means'; Whereas section 2(b)(6) of the Taiwan Relations Act further pledges `to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people of Taiwan'; Whereas on June 9, 1998, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to adopt House Concurrent Resolution 270 that called upon the President of the United States to seek `a public renunciation by the People's Republic of China of any use of force, or threat to use force, against democratic Taiwan'; Whereas the People's Republic of China has consistently refused to renounce the use of force against Taiwan; Whereas the State Council, an official organ at the highest level of the Government of the People's Republic of China, issued a `white paper' on February 21, 2000, which threatened `to adopt all drastic measures possible, including the use of force', if Taiwan indefinitely delays entering into negotiations with the People's Republic of China on the issue of reunification; and Whereas the February 21, 2000, statement by the State Council significantly escalates tensions across the Taiwan Straits and sets forth a new condition that has not heretofore been stated regarding the conditions that would prompt the People's Republic of China to use force against Taiwan: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That-- (1) the people of Taiwan are to be congratulated for the successful conclusion of presidential elections on March 18, 2000, and for their continuing efforts in developing and sustaining a free, democratic society which respects human rights and embraces free markets; (2) President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan is to be congratulated for his significant contributions to freedom and democracy on Taiwan; (3) President-elect Chen Shui-bian and Vice President-elect Annette Hsiu-lien Lu of Taiwan are to be congratulated for their victory, and they have the strong support and best wishes of the Congress and the American people for a successful administration; (4) it is the sense of Congress that the People's Republic of China should refrain from making provocative threats against Taiwan and should instead undertake steps that would lead to a substantive dialogue, including a renunciation of the use of force against Taiwan and progress toward democracy, the rule of law, and protection of human and religious rights in the People's Republic of China; and (5) the provisions of the Taiwan Relations Act (Public Law 96-8) are hereby affirmed as the statutory standard by which United States policy toward Taiwan shall be determined. (end text) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State - www.usinfo.state.gov)
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