It's Time to Recognize Taiwan

By Martha Zoller

With all the news from Egypt, it seems like a long time ago that the news was all about the visit to the United States by Chinese President Hu Jintao.  His three day trip to the United States included a formal state dinner, bilateral talks and a joint news conference, as well as a trip to Chicago. The Chinese President will participate in talks on trade, currency and North Korea. It will be the eighth face-to-face meeting between the two leaders. There is very little mention publicly or privately about the Republic of China on Taiwan during this visit.

Hu will stressed the importance of a comprehensive partnership between the two nations to help ensure stability worldwide, Chinese state media reported, despite their differences on issues such as human rights and currency controls. Again, little mention of Taiwan.

From a Chinese perspective, the relationship with Taiwan is better than it has been in years.  I just returned from a visit to Taiwan with the American Conservative Union.  Taiwan and the Mainland have new "cross strait" agreements that allow Chinese investment in Taiwan. It also allows Taiwanese ships to go to mainland harbors for trade purposes.  Tourism is allowed directly from China to Taiwan and millions of "Mainlanders" are visiting Taiwan and vice versa.  At the National Museum in Taipei, 1.3 million Mainlanders visited last year.  This makes them the country with the largest number of people visiting Taiwan each year.

I went to Taiwan earlier this month and when I visited the National Museum, I asked to tour guide what the reaction of people from Mainland China is to the collections in the museum.  He said, "They thank us for saving these artifacts." Taiwan is the place where the history of China lives.

The government of Taiwan is taking the position that if China has investments in Taiwan; they are less likely to want to destroy it. They are banking on the good relations with China and their economy grew almost 10% last year. Markets have been opened up with the Mainland and goods are going back and forth. Currently, they still get most of their agricultural imports from the United States and we want to keep it that way.

However, the Taiwanese government is not ignoring the threat China presents.  Taiwan has built a strong and vibrant society of the Republic of China on Taiwan and they are aware of the economic colonialism the Mainland is practicing all over the world. The Chinese may not take over the world with force, but they are investing in infrastructure and markets all over the world and there may come a day when they could "call in" their investments. 

The Taiwanese love Americans.  There is an exhibit in the National Library in Taipei showing how Americans helped them survive in the early years until 1980. This is an expansion of an exhibit that began in the southern city of Kaohsiung. At the CCK Military Airport, which was an American Air Force Base until President Jimmy Carter ended diplomatic relationships with Taiwan and shifted the recognition of China to Beijing in 1979, a museum of American involvement was just opened in the Chapel on base.  In a place where American military personnel worshiped and is still being used as a place of worship, there is a museum honoring US involvement in Taiwan.

Taiwan is our friend.  It is time to do three things regarding Taiwan.  First, show our friendship by allowing the Taiwanese to come in and out of the United States without a visa. They allow us to travel to Taiwan on our US Passport and we ought to do the same for them. Second, we should recognize them diplomatically and stand up for them as the longtime friend they have been.  It is a travesty our presidents have met with China every term since Nixon and not with our friend, Taiwan.  I know the ins and outs of diplomacy, but this relationship doesn't make sense. They are a full partner in Asia and we should treat them as such.  Finally, we should do everything we can to preserve the trading relationships with Taiwan.  They are still prefer our goods to Chinese goods, especially in agricultural products, but there will come a time when the cost of transport may trump our relationship with them and we must do everything we can to preserve that relationship.

The Taiwanese are banking on the fact that more access to them by the Chinese people will calm the relationship between the Mainland and Taiwan and so far it has worked, but they will need the full and fair friendship of the United States and they deserve it.  They have been our friend through thick and thin, even when we haven't acted like a friend to them, publicly. It's time we stuck by our real friends instead of hoping the popular guy will like us. 

I'm not anti-China.  However, we need to enlist all the free peoples of the world to forge new markets and to uphold liberty over tyranny. We also need to demand the respect of China and standing by our friends is the best way to do that.