Taiwan: America's Moral Dilemma
Brownfeld, Allan C.
they are situated. But unlike the drug addict who yearns in his agony to be saved or to die quickly, those here on the periphery of the counterculture do not seek an exit. They continue to...
...Communism today has changed fTom the Communism of the past...
...The capital city, Taipei, is a bustling and prosperous commercial and economic center...
...over half the cumulative total has come in the past three years...
...In November, 1969 the Seventh Fleet terminated its two-destroyer patrol off the coast of China and in July 1971 the United States stated that it would not transfer nuclear weapons now on Okinawa to Taiwan and also ended air reconnaissance missions over the mainland leaving from Taiwan...
...Red Chinese aid to Laos, North Vietnam and Cambodia is large...
...Most newspaper and magazine accounts of Nixon's China have been predictable...
...Not only is Taiwan an economic success, one of the few countries in the world to receive American foreign aid and then "take off" economically on its own, but more than this, it is the repository of the ancient Chinese culture and tradition...
...The City is filled with schools, colleges, and universities...
...The prospect became clear that the essence of Vietnamization was an American acceptance of considerable Asian instability and uncertainty...
...YuHuang stated that "the Communists are very shrewd," diplomatically implying that Mr...
...Premier ~hou gn-Lai, for example, was reported to ~ave taken the position that he would lever come to the United States or the United Nations as long as the United States maintained diplomatic relations with Nationalist China...
...By this I mean that there are certain blocks and countries advocating a certain type of Communism...
...This, we have argued, made America different...
...She noted that "America has been the best frieud of China traditionally...
...Professor Gerhart Niemeyer, writing in Orb[s, points out that "by contrast, Chiang Kai-Shek has governed in u spirit of respect and reverence for the traditional order of China...
...If we abandon these allies we will be fulfilling the prediction of the radicals on the New Left that America is, after all, "like everybody else," willing to do anything for what it conceives of being its narrow self-interest...
...If our commitment to these old and faithful allies is not honored, who in the world will believe that any American commitment is any longer worth the paper upon which it is written...
...The French, with their own brand of chauvinism, were impressed that Andre Malraux gave valuable advice to Nixon on the eve of his departure, including the gratuitous suggestion of a new Marshall Plan for China, because "today the Chinese absolutely are no longer interested in revolutionary problems...
...It is a city in which publications of every kind from throughout the world may be found, a stark contrast to the closed society on the Mainland...
...Professor Chen Tzu-sheih stated that "Nixon is a pragmatist...
...The people of Taiwan are depending upon America's honor...
...Last year, Taiwan matched the estimated $4.3 billion total trade of the Communist mainland -- and this year will overtake R. The per capita Gross National Product, $400, is already about four times as large as Communist China's...
...Adequate proof of this assertion is offered by the existence of Soviet made weaponry and supplies in the war raging in the Iudochina peninsula...
...In Taiwan, the ancient Chinese culture, literature and religious tradition continues to live and to thrive, while on the Mainland that tradition has been ruthlessly destroyed...
...No place was this concern more evident than in Taiwan...
...Consider these facts: Over the past two and one half years soine SO0,000 United States troops have been brought home from Asia...
...Travels With Richard Taiwan: America's Moral Dilemma Allan C. Brownfeld T HE SINGLE IMPRESSION which" this writer could not escape during a recent tour of the Far East is that our Asian allies are nervous...
...They also find it difficult to explain why the American President appears to have gone to Peking out of weakness, rather than out of strength...
...Nixon's visit to Peking cannot repair the weakpoints in his Asian policy...
...The Swedes chalked up Nixon's trip to electionyear politicking, and, with the special penchant for anti-Americanism that Swedish journalists have,_ they cherished quoting the "average" Chinamanin-~he-street about how Nixon was coming, "begging-bowl in hand...
...Today, there are many reasons for the people and the government of the Republic of China on Taiwan to be concerned about American policy...
...What concerns our Asian allies is not only the fact that America's word no longer seems dependable but also the fact that America says one thing and seems to do another...
...It carefully constructed a system of alliances, in Europe and in Asia, based upon a mutual interest in stopping the forces of aggression...
...Twenty-two foreign affairs experts discussed me recent changes in American Chinese policy at the Institute of International Relations in Musa, a suburb of Taipei...
...Outside of the government, however, more concern and some bitterness is felt...
...What everyone finds unexpected is that the Nixon Administration would follow this erroneous approach, rather than leading the American people against it...
...Boston has never been so bad...
...Professor Lin Chih-lieh, for example, said that "the Nixon visit to Peking clearly manifests the fact that the policy of containment in Asia has been completely destroyed...
...South Vietnam is hardly the only country witnessing a massive withdrawal of American forces...
...One UPI report quoted a foreign correspondent residing in Peking: "When you ,leave, the smiles will come off their faces, and it will be like old times again...
...They are living off the flames as Rome burns, and as the city burns they fiddle quite knowingly: And they are taking the calculated risk that they will not die in the flames or burn for their own sins...
...Beyond this, such an abandonment would be a 'tragedy, both morally and economically...
...It is, it must be remembered, only the power commitment of the United States which has provided an equalizer...
...To turn Taiwan over to Communist China would be to lose for the Free World Asia's number two economic power...
...While the Nixon Doctrine is l~ss than they would want, it nevertheless appears reasonable in principle...
...Nixon's announcement of his intention to visit the Chinese Communists has prompted the Soviets to enter Asia...
...Mrs...
...Tsai Wei-Ping, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs...
...If you think that you can reform the Communists you are bound to fail...
...In his "State of the World" message ,n February 9, the President moved ~ven further in this direction...
...Speaking as if to convince himself of the truth of his words, the minister stated that "Taiwan is important to the defense of many countries in the Pacific area...
...An example of such official reaction came in a conversation with H.E...
...Even if I were not Chinese, watching President Nixon's plans for his trip to Peking, I would say it was like watching a child playing with fire...
...Americans are young and vibrant, but have less experience and patience than those in Asia...
...It has given up no allies this way...
...The fact that the United States has a long standing treaty commitment to protect the island seems less and less important a part of the political equation as the American government appears to be embracing a policy of withdrawal from the world...
...The Cultural Revolution was massive and deliberate attempt against the very core of Chinese culture, comparable to the Soviets' continuous warfare egainst Russian Christianity and the freedom of Russian literature, and it went even further in its attempt to destroy the authority of teachers and varents...
...Our commitment to Taiwan goes back to 1949, when the Communists seized the mainland and the Nationalists moved to the island...
...It is too early to praise Nixon for diplomatic or political achievements of which we have yet to see the evidence...
...Whether America's face is missing remains to be seen...
...If the Chinese are not smiling, it is not because they have "lost face...
...In South Korea, 20,000 American troops suddenly have orders to return home by midyear...
...Allan C. Brownfeld is a former editor of New Guard whose articles have appeared in Human Events, The Yale Review, Commonweal and Modern Age...
...He is also a tricky, power hungry politician...
...Therefore, peace, the slogan of the Nixon visit, cannot emerge as the result of talks with Peiping...
...In a rare occasion in the United States, James Reston had praise b The Alternative May 1972...
...states clearly that during the past year "Asian economic progress was offset by political anxieties over the emerging realities of the Nixon doctrine...
...While the President emphasized that he United States was not urging either ~hinese faction "to follow any particular ~urse" over Taiwan, Henry A. Kis;inger, the President's national security ldvisex, when asked if the Administra:ion favored direct negotiations between :hem, replied that "this is obviously :he course which, we think has the ,,reatest promise...
...When President Nixon was asked January 2, by C.B.S...
...America has, for many years, prided itself upon being a reliable ally...
...They continue to burn the candle at both ends, tasting of the fruits of a tree the seed of which they condemn...
...We are more philosophical...
...It is clear that Lhe status of Taiwan is high on Coma~unist China's list, and it is difficult Lo understand how the Nixon Administration intends to fulfill its treaty commitments by urging fifteen million people on Taiwan to negotiate with 700 millionon the Mainland...
...Requiescat in pace, Cotton Mather...
...Those who urge the recognition of Communist China and the abandonment of Taiwan, or even the lesser Nixon-Kissinger position of direct negotiations, must consider the international ramifications of such a policy...
...It has several English language newspapers, as well as a host of Chinese papers...
...President Nixon has returned from his flight to Red China, and from his flight into the rhetoric of euphoria...
...After a decade of growth averaging ten per cent annually, Taiwan has beconle a resilient industrial mini-state...
...From now on, as a consequence, American influence in Northeast Asia, Central-South Asia and South Asia will be greatly diminished...
...These include 9,000 from Thailand, 6,000 from the Philippines, 5,060 from Okinawa, 12,000 from Japan, and smaller reductions in Taiwan...
...While running a tightly authoritarian establishment, he has not dedicated his power to the subversion of China's substance...
...Yet, many argue, the actual military policies being pursued make it impossible to implement...
...While official circles refrain from any real Criticism of American policy, it is not difficult, when speaking to influential citizens outside of the government, to guage their real feelings...
...Jeffrey M. Nelson is a graduate student at Harvard...
...In morals, habits and customs, rituals and beliefs, he has acted as a steward of a great heritage, while providing his people with the benefits of a rapidly expanding economy...
...Nixon's entourage might not he a proper match for them...
...Taiwan amassed a thirty-four million dollar trade surplus...
...Chiang Kai-Shek's government has maintained its link with the leg[tim[zing principles of the Confucian tradition, the renovating movement of Sun Yat-sen, and the traditional pattern of Chinese habits and customs...
...In his nessage, President Nixon noted point~dly that "the ultimate relationship ~tween Taiwan and the mainland is mt a matter for the United States to lecide...
...In all of these cases, the United States has shown itself to be a trustworthy ~iend...
...Report from Hong Kong Nixon and Mao Eric Brodin "The Week That Changed The World" recedes in history, although, to be sure, the world still appears rather unchanged...
...While the President argues that our commitment to our allies in Asia is firm, American troops are rapidly leaving Asia...
...He stated, "The United States is a country honoring treaty commitments...
...A danger we face, and one which our allies both in Asia and in Europe are very much aware, is that of an emerging isolationism in America...
...Such a feeling of withdrawal has followed every war, and it is only natural that it would follow Vietuam...
...Since a sizable number of United States forces on Taiwan are there in support of the Vietnam effort, it is considered reasonable to assume that numbers will taper off as the war continues to wind down...
...The sterner realities remain, however, now, when the heady bubble of American champagne, and those inscrutable semi-smiles, have been wiped off the faces of Mao's entourage...
...Such an abandonment would be neither in keeping with our moral role in the world, nor with our self-interest...
...Asians cannot view the President's initiative to Peking as anything but a sign of weakness since it comes at the very moment of American withdrawal as well as at the time when Soviet strategic weapons seem to be moving ahead of those of the United States, a fact of which they are very much aware...
...By any standard, it is a lively, vigorous city...
...In pursuit of this end, we sponsored the Marshall .Plan for the economic recovery of Europe after World V/ar IL we risked the Berlin Airlift, we lauded Marines in Lebanon and fought long and costly wars in Korea and in Vietnam...
...Another Chinese with strong feelings is Nancy Yu-Huang, the American educated publisher of the English language newspaper, the China Post...
...This means that discussion with one Communist country in order to promote peace might be looked upon as dangerous by another Communist regime...
...Peking insists on an immediate 'return" of Taiwan...
...Taiwan has approved $559,180,000 in investment projects, with American companies accounting for $250 million...
...In fact, we have liked to contrast our own willingness to stand by our stated word with our adversaries' unwillingness...
...The opinions expressed reveal the depth of concern which may be heard not only in Taiwan but also in South Korea, Thatland, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and throughout Asia...
...The Swiss, as is their wont, were talking about the "easing of tensions" and the "neutralization of a possible confrontation...
...Professor Lucian W. Pye of the Center for International Studies at M.I.T...
...They cannot understand why President Nixon embarked upon his trip to Communist China without first consulting them, as partners in an alliance are allegedly supposed to do...
...correspondent Dan Rather, whether the United States The Alternative May 1972' 7 ras beginn'mg to withdraw its troops :om Taiwan, his answer was "not t the present point," which students of ',hina affairs took to mean that itwas possibility later on...
...No President would recognize Red China and de-recognize Taiwan in one stroke...
...We learned our lesson about Communism the hard way...
...The island's exports, which range from canned mushrooms to railway cars, rose 40.6 percentlast year to $1.6 billion...
...More than 30,000 Americans in other Far East nations will also pull back...
...If Taiwan is ever permitted to fall, all American alliances may fall with it...
...Hopefully, the President will come to understand that peace can never come as a result of ignoring legal and moral obligations...
...Taiwan is the rare developing country that exports principally industrial goods (seventy-eight per cent of foreign sales) rather than raw materials...
...The people of Taiwan will be disappointed only if America turns its back not only upon them, but upon its own national honor as well...
...He is a recipient of a Wall Street Journal Foundation Award...
...What the new policies may produce is not a "generation of peace," but a generation of instability which can lead only to testing and probing by those Communist countries which maintain their aggressive policies...
...This, however, is only the beginning...
...Watching you in international affairs we feel is like watching a child, full of energy, but too emotional...
Vol. 5 • May 1972 • No. 8
