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 Technology Transfer from Taiwan to China: Is there a Risk?

by John J. Tkacik, Jr.

For two decades, American foreign policy operated on the premise that trade with China would have an inevitable liberalizing effect. This persisted after the Tiananmen crisis, and even after the 1996 Taiwan Strait missile crisis when Beijing attempted to intimidate Taiwanese voters from casting ballots for President Lee Teng-hui. It was at the foundation of Clinton's China policy and apparently undergirds the Bush policy as well.

 There is universal agreement in the Administration that the U.S. consuls abroad who adjudicate visa applications for foreigners and hopeful immigrants are among those on the first line of defense against global terrorism.1 The visa system in place on September 11 failed in this responsibility, allowing many of the terrorists to enter the United States unnoticed and bearing genuine visas.2

 The International Trade Commission (ITC) is preparing a report for Congress and the executive branch on the advisability of negotiating a formal free trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan, one of America's top trading partners. Indeed, a bill already drafted by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)1 would authorize the Administration to negotiate such an agreement on a "fast track" basis. Consideration of this bill awaits the release of the ITC report, due out later this summer.