Washington, 31 July 1998
In an article in the 10 August 1998 issue of Forbes
Magazine, former US Defense Secretary Caspar
Weinberger wrote an article strongly criticizing US President Bill
Clinton for selling out Taiwan.
Weinberger said that Mr. Clinton's remarks on the "three noes"
during his recent China visit "...went a long country mile
beyond the U.S.' carefully ambiguous policy", which was that
the United States only "...acknowledged that we understood what
China's claim was -- but we never went beyond that."
Mr. Weinberger wondered who approved "...this unilateral
attempt to change U.S. policy so drastically." He added: "Certainly
not Congress nor anyone else in the Administration. Mr. Clinton
alone uttered those dangerously careless remarks."
Mr. Weinberger stated that in 1994 (in the Taiwan Policy Review --
Ed.) the U.S. pledged to work to "make Taiwan's voice heard"
in all international organizations iof which it is not a member."
But now, Mr. Clinton is "..pledging to dash any hopes our old
friend Taiwan has of joining the U.N., the International Monetary
Fund, the World Bank, or any other organization to which China might
object."
Mr. Weinberger continues: "And what did we get in return for
Mr. Clinton's extraordinary cave-in? The Chinese allowed Mr. Clinton
a televised speech, and he was the subject of many admiring toasts
from president Jiang."
Mr. Weinberger then said that during his China trip, "...what
Mr. Clinton forgot -- or chose to ignore -- was that Taiwan, unlike
the PRC, is a free country. It has a free press, free elections, and
freedom of religion. It has the right to determine its own
future."
He charged that "Mr. Clinton's extraordinary diplomatic and
political blunders will ... encourage the Chinese to believe that
they can use force against Taiwan. An we will develop ingeneous
arguments as to why we need to do nothing to stop China."
Mr. Weinberger concludes: "Anything short of a clear
repudiation of Clinton's cave-in will only encourage China to think
it has a free hand to violate our Taiwan relations Act whenever it
chooses."
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