Correspondence
Correspondence TREATY TRIUMPH I AM INDEED HEARTENED by the action our Senate took last week with the defeat of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ("The Senate Republicans' Finest Hour," Oct. 25)....
...For in order to enforce the treaty (at those 300-plus listening stations), we would have to break the treaty...
...Even President Clinton—an internationalist who enjoys sticking America's nose into others' affairs—gave the "vitally important" treaty rather yawning support until it was too late...
...According to recent reports, China has over 150 missiles aimed at Taiwan and plans to increase the number to 600 by the year 2005...
...The act will effectively deal with this situation in which the security of Taiwan is threatened due to the imbalance of military power across the Taiwan Strait...
...A secure Taiwan is important for a free flow of trade in the region...
...I concur with Richard Perle's analysis, as cited by William Kristol and Robert Kagan in their editorial, but would take it one step further: Imagine a domestic Comprehensive Gun Ban Treaty (read: gun control) among all citizens of our country...
...The treaty is a wonderful example of inside-out Clintonism...
...They merely relied on the tired mantra of "making the world safer for our children," etc., without putting forth a cogent argument for ratification...
...You do not illustrate why the Communist Chinese are so vehemently opposed to the bill and why the bill is so important for Taiwan and its future...
...Maybe the thing is more of a Democratic party charade than you surmise...
...A secure Taiwan will contribute to peace and stability in east Asia...
...Well done, senators—you have shown America that we do indeed have three coequal branches of government...
...The Senate has done just that...
...And the only way to test a monitoring device is to see if it can "hear" underground detonations of varying yields and configurations...
...2) that Taiwan will receive the essential equipment to maintain its self-defense capability...
...The bill provides (1) that the ultimate status of Taiwan must have the express consent of Taiwan's people...
...Why...
...and (3) that there will be improved military communication between Taiwan and the United States.Enacting the bill would be timely...
...Why should Congress enact this bill...
...BUTTERS New Bern, NC APART FROM ALL the other excellent reasons for having voted down the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, senators seem to have overlooked a clincher...
...WEN-YEN CHEN President, Formosan Association for Public Affairs Washington, DC...
...M.K...
...The Left and the press vilified Senate Republicans for pushing the United States closer to doomsday— without ever making a case for ratification...
...Not only would representatives of the criminal community be allowed into our homes to "verify" our compliance, but they would also have the ability to keep us out of any room of their choosing—whether they have weapons in it or not...
...I am quite certain that my neighbors—liberal and conservative— would see right through this dubious proposition and reject it outright...
...It is in the best interest of the United States to preserve and promote American values such as self-determination and democracy...
...Close military communication between the United States and Taiwan and Taiwan's enhanced capability to defend itself would lessen the likelihood that China could annex Taiwan against the will of its 21 million people at some point in the future...
...Because the only way to maintain the enforcement protocol is to periodically test, repair, and upgrade it...
...PHILIP TYRE Dunedin, FL STAND BY TAIWAN IN A RECENT ITEM in THE SCRAPBOOK, you write that a group of nine legislators from China were in Washington recently to lobby against the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act ("Beijing's Best Friends on the Hill," Oct...
...Since 1979, the United States is the only country that is committed by law to Taiwan's safety and security...
...We want to emphasize, though, that Taiwanese-Americans are in favor of enhancing U.S.-China relations, as long as such progress does not take place at the expense of the people of Taiwan and their country's future as a de jure independent democracy...
...This is in the United States' interest...
...Taiwan is strategically located in the Pacific Rim, through which 40 percent of the world's trade flows...
...Nobody but the people of Taiwan has the right to determine the future of Taiwan...
...China, of course, opposes the bill, for China unrealistically claims Taiwan as a province and does not want to see the people of Taiwan determine their own future...
...China will have an overwhelming advantage over Taiwan...
...Food for thought: Perhaps Clinton and his arms-control freaks are right to, as you characterize them in your editorial, not take the treaty seriously...
Vol. 5 • November 1999 • No. 8
