AP: U.S.-Taiwan Security Act Criticized

[Dao Van <daotb@yahoo.com>]

U.S.-Taiwan Security Act Criticized

By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A House committee moved Tuesday to expand U.S.-Taiwan
security ties and send a clear message to China that the United States
would respond to aggression against Taiwan.  The Clinton administration
said the measure could worsen tensions across the Taiwan Strait. 

The ``Taiwan Security Enhancement Act,'' approved 32-6 by the
International Relations Committee, would increase training operations
and exchanges between the two militaries and establish lines of
communications during crises.  It also states that it is in America's
national interest to make clear that the United States will support
Taiwan from outside coercion and force. 

The legislation was modified considerably from the original bill by Rep.
Tom DeLay, R-Texas, which would have authorized the sale of specific
weapons to Taiwan. 

But the Clinton administration still criticized the measure. 

``These types of changes can be
particularly destabilizing given the current environment,'' Assistant
Secretary of State Stanley Roth told reporters, saying it could
ultimately undermine Taiwan's security. 

Several Republicans who worked to modify the original bill, Asia
subcommittee chairman Doug Bereuter, R-Neb., and Matt Salmon, R-Ariz.,
also cautioned against upsetting the delicate U.S.-China-Taiwan balance.
``We should not underestimate the sensitivity of U.S.-China relations
when it comes to Taiwan,'' Bereuter said. 

The legislation is an outgrowth of Chinese hostility toward democratic
changes in Taiwan, a strong anti-China drift in Congress and Republican
criticisms that the administration has sacrificed Taiwan's interests to
maintain stable relations with Beijing. 

``We are troubled by the Clinton
administration's handling of Taiwan policy,'' said Committee Chairman
Ben Gilman, R-N.Y., citing its unwillingness to sell Taiwan some
defensive weapons systems and talk of a
``strategic partnership'' with
Beijing. 

But in a sometimes raucous debate, Democrats on both sides of the
measure defended the administration's Taiwan policy, including the
decision to send U.S.  aircraft carriers into the region after China in
1996 test-fired missiles in the Taiwan Strait. 

``There's no doubt in my mind
that this is politically designed to embarrass the administration,''
Rep.  Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said of the legislation. 

Kurt Campbell, a senior Pentagon adviser on Asia who was called out of
the audience by Gilman to answer questions during the committee debate,
dodged queries on whether the United States had refused to provide
Taiwan with missile defense systems.  Such matters should be discussed
only in closed session, Campbell said, but he said the administration
had made ``extra efforts'' in recent years to ensure that Taiwan had
adequate defenses. 

Under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, passed after the United States cut
diplomatic ties with Taiwan and formed relations with China, the United
States is committed to helping Taiwan secure its self-defense. 

The U.S.  stance has long been that reunification of China and Taiwan,
which China considers a breakaway province, must only occur by peaceful
means and that China would face grave consequences if it tries to take
Taiwan by force.  The United States, meanwhile, has warned Taiwan not to
take pro-independence positions that might provoke Chinese aggression. 

Former Clinton administration CIA Director R. James Woolsey supports
making U.S.  military support for Taiwan more clear-cut.  On Tuesday, he
accused the administration of appeasement toward China. 

The measure now moves to the full House.  Similar legislation has been
introduced in the Senate. 

----

The bill is H.R.  1838. 

^CAP-NY-10-26-99 1547EDT

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