The U.S. Doesn't Recognize China's Claims to Taiwan

It may be ancient history, but Richard V. Allen's memory of Nixon's Taiwan policy is garbled ("The Next Step in the Taiwan-China Dance," Aug. 17). As a U.S. foreign service officer I worked on China and Taiwan affairs for 20 years, and I can attest that the U.S. has never subscribed to China's territorial claims on Taiwan. Nor did President Richard Nixon ever publicly articulate such a policy.

In fact, Nixon instructed his ambassador to the United Nations (then George H. W. Bush) to vote against the People's Republic of China's admission to the U.N. on Oct. 25, 1971 (even though he and Henry Kissinger knew they didn't have the votes in the U.N. General Assembly) precisely because that vote required the expulsion of Taiwan's representatives. Nixon's public policy was "dual representation" in support of U.N. seats for both Taipei and Beijing. To this day, official U.S. policy eschews recognition of China's claims to Taiwan. As recently as June 2007, the State Department's response (drafted by the Office of the Legal Advisor) to citizens concerned about Taiwan was that the U.S. has "not formally recognized Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan and [has] not made any determination as to Taiwan's political status."
In 2007, the U.S. became alarmed that the U.N. Secretariat had issued documents asserting that the U.N. considered "Taiwan for all purposes to be an integral part of the PRC." U.S. diplomats informed the secretariat that "while that assertion was consistent with the Chinese position, it is not universally held by U.N. member states, including the United States."
The U.S. Mission then "urged the U.N. Secretariat to review its policy on the status of Taiwan and to avoid taking sides in a sensitive matter on which U.N. members have agreed to disagree for over 35 years." They warned that "if the U.N. Secretariat insists on describing Taiwan as a part of the PRC, or on using nomenclature for Taiwan that implies such status, the United States will be obliged to disassociate itself on a national basis from such position." The U.N. Secretariat has indeed ceased to assert that Taiwan is an integral part of China.

Mr. Allen's phrase "there is but one China, and Taiwan is part of China" is a purely Chinese formula. It is testimony to the effectiveness of Beijing's (and the weakness of the State Department's) public diplomacy that Mr. Allen, himself a friend of Taiwan, confuses China's policy with America's.

John J. Tkacik, Jr.
Alexandria, Va.

美國不承認中國對台灣的主張
譚慎格 John J. Tkacik, Jr. 華爾街日報 Wall Street Journal 9.1.2009

可能因為已是很久以前的歷史吧，Richard V. Allen 對尼克森台灣政策的記憶是很模糊了。我以美國外交官的身份處理中國及台灣的事務有二十年之久，我可以証實美國從未同意中國對台灣是其領土的主張。尼克森總統也未曾公開如此的政策。

事實上， 雖然當時尼克森及季辛吉都知道美國在聯合國大會沒有足夠的票數反對， 尼克森還是指示他當時的駐聯合國大使喬治．H．W．布希於１９７１年１０

月２５日投票反對中華人民共和國進入聯合國。這就是因為這個案包含驅逐由台灣來的代表。尼克森的政策是要「雙重代表」，支持台北及北京同時為聯合國會員。到今天，美國的政策還是反對中國對台灣的領土主張。最近，在２００７年６月，美國國務院（由其法律顧問起稿）對關心台灣的美國公民的反應中說美國「並沒有正式承認中國對台灣有所主權，並且對台灣的政治地位尚未做一個決定」。

在２００７年，美國警覺到聯合國秘書長所發表的文件中說「從任何角度來看，台灣是中華人民共和國不可分裂的一部分」。美國代表通知秘書長說「這個看法雖然與中國的主張一樣，但這個看法並不一致被包括美國在內的聯合國會員國贊同」。

美國駐聯合國代表團又說美國「敦促聯合國秘書長再次復習聯合國對台灣地位的政策，以避免對這個聯合國會員國３５年來已經互相同意有不同主張的、一個很敏感的題目有所靠邊」，美國代表團又警告說「如果聯合國秘書長繼續堅持將台灣視為中華人民共和國的一部份，或稱呼台灣時使用暗示這個主張的名稱，美國將只好以一個國家的地位與這種主張割清」聯合國秘書長真的就停止主張台灣是中國不可分離的一部份了。

Allen 先生說一句「中國只有一個，台灣是中國的一部份」是純粹中國所用的程式。甚至是台灣友人的 Allen 先生都將中國的對台政策混淆為是美國的對台政策，由此可以看出中國公眾外交的成功（也相對表示美國國務院的弱點）。（許世模譯）