Taiwan Safety and Security Resolution introduced in the House

Washington, 3 February 1999

Today, U.S. Congressmen Robert E. Andrews (D-NJ) and Steve Chabot (R-OH) introduced a bipartisan resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives strongly urging the Clinton Administration to seek a public renunciation by China of any use of force, or threat of use of force, against Taiwan, and stressing that the United States should help Taiwan in case of threats or a military attack by China.

The text of the resolution follows below:

H.Con.Res.22.

Concurrent resolution

Providing that the President should seek a public renunciation by the People's Republic of China of any use of force, or threat to use force, against Taiwan, and that the United States should help Taiwan in case of threats or a military attack by the People's Republic of China.

  • Whereas in March of 1996, the political leadership of the People's Republic of China used provocative military maneuvers, including missile launch exercises in the Taiwan Strait, in an attempt to intimidate the people of Taiwan during their historic, free and democratic presidential elections;
  • Whereas the People's Republic of China refuses to renounce the use of force against Taiwan;
  • Whereas the House of Representatives passed a resolution by a vote of 411-0 in June 1998 urging the President to seek, during his July 1998 summit meeting in Beijing, a public renunciation by the People's Republic of China of any use of force, or threat of use of force, against democratic Taiwan;
  • Whereas senior United States executive branch officials have called upon the People's Republic of China to renounce the use of force against Taiwan;
  • Whereas the use of force, and the threat to use force, by the People's Republic of China against Taiwan threatens peace and stability in the region;
  • Whereas the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act states that "[i]t is the policy of the United States ... to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means, including by boycotts or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of grave concern to the United States"; and
  • Whereas the Taiwan Relations Act states that it is the policy of the United States to provide Taiwan with arms of a defensive character:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the U.S. House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That --

  1. the President of the United States should seek a public renunciation by the People's Republic of China of any use of force, or threat to use force, against Taiwan; and
  2. the United States should help Taiwan defend itself in case of threats or a military attack by the People's Republic of China against Taiwan.
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