The king of any anthill can proclaim nationhood and be granted
U.N. membership, so long as he has a good P.R. consultant. Even the
low-testosterone terrorists who make up Yassir Arafat’s Palestinian
Authority were granted a U.N. seat. But not Taiwan. Communist China
claims Taiwan as a renegade province, and the rest of the world
goes along with the dangerous charade because Beijing growls every
time someone even calls Taiwan by its proper name — the Republic
of China on Taiwan.
Ever since Jimmah Carter tried to surrender Taiwan, the Chicoms
have largely succeeded in excluding it from the community of
nations. President Bush came into office with a harder line in
favor of Taiwan. When his administration was considering the sale
to Taiwan of Aegis radar-equipped ships — which can be the
cornerstone of missile defense — the Chicoms went into hysterics.
It was no coincidence that while those discussions were going on,
in April 2001, China forced down a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft
over international waters. We got our people back, the Chicoms
stole all the secret electronic gear from the bird, and the
president shied away from the Aegis sale. Instead, we promised the
Taiwanese some diesel-electric submarines which we can’t get for
them because our shipyards can’t build them for anything less than
about ten times the reasonable price, and no one else is ready to
buck the Chicoms to sell subs to the Taiwanese. Since 9-11, we have
paid scant attention to China and Taiwan. Now, the State Department
wants us to believe the Chicoms are some sort of ally in the war
against terror. If you define Saudi Arabia as an ally, China could
qualify. It’s time to take another look.
Chicom premier Jiang Zemin was so obsessed about the 9-11
strikes on the World Trade Center, he watched the films over and
over again. State-controlled Beijing television rushed to create a
documentary called “Attack America” which applauds the terrorist
attacks. In one section of the video, the narrator says, “This is
the America the whole world has wanted to see. Blood debts have
been repaid in blood. American has bombed other countries and used
its hegemony to deny the natural rights of others without paying
the price. Who until now has dared to avenge the hurts inflicted by
unaccountable Americans.” So we know where they stand, but where do
we? Our best barometers will be an upcoming key Pentagon
appointment and the next round of arms sales to Taiwan.
The president’s policy can only be as strong and reliable as
those who are chosen to implement it. The Pentagon leadership —
Big Dog Don Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz — are no
friends of Beijing. But their staff is now going through a
changeover that could dilute the support Taiwan needs to fend off
“reunification” — the Chicom code word for enslaving Taiwan — in
the next decade. Peter Brookes, the deputy assistant secretary of
defense for East Asia, has resigned. According to the
Washington Times, Mr. Wolfowitz is considering
résumés of about a dozen candidates to replace
Brookes. Two of them are from former Clinton appointees, and should
be tossed in the round file forthwith.
Michael Green, a former Clinton appointee in the Pentagon, and
Karen Brooks, a Clinton State Department appointee, both now
National Security Council staffers, want the job. Both are
squishy-soft on Beijing. Mr. Wolfowitz should not choose either of
them. Instead, he should pick someone who has the experience, and
the vision, to help strengthen the president’s hand when the Taiwan
arms issues come around again. If Wolfowitz chooses one of the
Clintonistas, we’ll know the President’s Taiwan policy has taken a
left turn. And then there are the arms sales to Taiwan.
The missile defense problem is, for Taiwan, even more urgent
than for us. At this moment, the Chicoms have about 500 short and
medium-range missiles deployed to strike Taiwan. The president
promised the submarines instead of missile defense. But the subs —
even if we could deliver them, which we can’t — would fill a
different, and much less urgent, need. Taiwan’s defense depends on
two things: protecting its air and naval forces from annihilation
in the first hours of an attack, and then being able to use them to
prevent huge waves of Chicom troops from landing. If the air and
naval forces are protected from missile attack, the subs are almost
redundant.
We should be selling the Taiwanese Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile
batteries that are capable of reducing the Chicom threat
substantially. At the same time, we should be contracting with them
to build the Aegis ships, which could then be on line in six or
seven years. The Chicoms will be perfectly hysterical if we do,
threatening all sorts of retaliation. But if the Taiwanese, who
aren’t dummies, keep quiet about this and about declaring
independence Beijing will sputter and fume and do little more.
Taiwan is a free country, and its people have done nothing to
deserve the slavery to which Beijing would reduce them. We remember
Lafayette, and bail the French out whenever the Germans come
marching in. We should remember that Chiang Kai Shek — whose
Kuomintang forces fled to Taiwan after the war — could have made a
separate peace with the Japanese in World War II, and possibly kept
Mao from taking their country from them by force. But Chiang
refused and stayed in the fight on our side. Without that help, our
fight against Japan would have been longer, and far more costly in
American lives. We owe a debt to Taiwan we dare not forget.
Mr. Bush should stick to the policy of doing whatever it takes
to ensure that Taiwan remains free. But we need to do more than
just say it. Sell ‘em the Patriots and the Aegis ships, and keep
the president’s policy safe from the remaining Clintonoids. Chiang,
we are here.
