Handling the Taiwan Issue: Bush Administration Policy toward Beijing and Taipei

Abstract

L et all who doubt, from whatever perspective, be assured of one solid truth: xpect and demand a peaceful settlement, one acceptable to people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.' Thus S cr tary of State designate Colin L. Powell poke about the China-Taiwan issue duri g his Sen confirmation hearings on 17 January 2001 in Wash ngton. Subsequent comments Secretary Powell and President George W. Bush i dicated that t e Bush administratio , unlike the Will am Clinton administration, no longer considered China a strategic par r of the United St tes. But neither, added Powell, China our in v table and implacable foe.2 President Bus , in his 22 March 2001 meeting with China's senior diplomat, Qian Qichen, stated, Nothing e do is a threat to you and I want you to tell that to your leadership.3 Initially the Bush administration's China-Taiwan policy was a tougher kind of eng gement: a policy of conti ued economic and political involvement with China, while also taking a harder line on security issues. The chal enge, according to Powell, was to keep the Chinese from becoming an enemy by e meshing them in th rule of law, exposing them to th powerful forces of a free enterprise system and democracy, s they can see that this is the proper dir ction in which to move. In the meantime, however, We ll stand Taiwan and we ill provide the defense needs of Tai an in accordance with the Taiwan Rela-