U.S. May Ease Limits on Ties With Taiwan

The Clinton Administration is preparing policy changes that will give the government of Taiwan greater leeway in dealing with the United States than it has had for 15 years, Administration officials say.

The changes, which await final approval by President Clinton and could be announced in the next couple of weeks, would ease some restrictions imposed on Taiwan when the United States established diplomatic relations with its enemy, the People’s Republic of China.

“Some of the procedures (for dealing with Taiwan) have become anachronistic,” one Administration official said. “The basic thrust of what we will do is to re-establish U.S. interests as the basis for relations with both Taiwan and China. What we’re trying to do is establish some principles and a position we can use with both sides.”

The Administration’s primary goal is to make it easier to conduct business with Taiwan, which is now the United States’ fifth-largest trading partner and has more than $80 billion in foreign-exchange reserves, second in the world behind Japan.

Administration officials acknowledge that they have held up the proposed changes to see if they can minimize the fallout from China, which still considers Taiwan a renegade province. “There is still some concern here about how the Chinese will react,” one U.S. official admitted. “They’re not happy with what they’ve heard.”

Among the changes being proposed are:

* Permitting some American Cabinet officials to visit Taiwan and some Taiwan Cabinet members to visit the United States. Although there have been exceptions, Cabinet-level visits between the two governments generally have been forbidden for 15 years on grounds that they might be interpreted as suggesting U.S. recognition of Taiwan.

* Allowing Taiwan’s offices in the United States to use an identifiable name, like “Taipei Representative Office.” For 15 years, Taiwan’s offices in Washington and around the United States--which serve as its unofficial embassy and consulates--have been called the “Coordination Council for North American Affairs.” The name is so confusing and nondescript that Taiwan officials complain they get calls intended for Alcoholics Anonymous.

* Permitting Taiwan officials to meet with their American counterparts in U.S. government buildings. Since 1979, the United States has generally required representatives of Taiwan to meet American officials in other locales, such as hotels and restaurants, to emphasize the unofficial ties between the two governments.

Despite these measures, several Administration officials cautioned that there will be no change in the fundamental principles underlying American ties with China and Taiwan.

“We’re not changing the basics of our one-China policy,” one U.S. official explained. “There will be no change in our views about sovereignty. . . . What we’re trying to do is adjust the details of the relationship in ways that allow us to carry on appropriate relations with both sides.”

The Nationalist government has been based in Taiwan since Gen. Chiang Kai-shek fled to the island in 1949 at the end of China’s civil war. Chiang claimed, with U.S. backing, that his Nationalists, rather than the Communist regime in Beijing, were the legitimate government for all of China.

But during President Richard Nixon’s historic trip to China in 1972, he signed the Shanghai Communique, in which the United States agreed not to challenge the idea that Taiwan was part of China. Seven years later, President Jimmy Carter broke off formal U.S. ties with Taiwan and established diplomatic relations with Beijing. Since then, unofficial ties between the United States and Taiwan have been carried out through special organizations set up for this purpose.

The United States has no embassy in Taipei but set up the American Institute in Taiwan, staffed by foreign service officers on leaves of absence; it performs many functions of an embassy. Similarly, Taiwan’s offices in the United States have no formal diplomatic status.

The first major changes in American policy toward Taiwan took place in the last year of the George Bush Administration. In the 1992 presidential campaign, Bush cleared the way for the sale of a major new weapons system, F-16 warplanes, to Taiwan. And after the election, when he was a lame duck, Bush dispatched U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills to Taipei, the first Cabinet officer to visit since 1979.

As governor of Arkansas, Clinton visited Taiwan five times, more than any other place outside the United States. But in his first 18 months in office, his Administration has generally held the line on policy toward Taiwan, arguing repeatedly that all changes were on hold while U.S. officials conducted a broad policy review.

Two months ago, the Administration was deluged with criticism from Congress when Taiwan’s president, Lee Teng-hui, sought permission to stop overnight in Honolulu on a trip from Taipei to Central America.

The State Department gave permission for Lee’s plane to refuel in Hawaii but not for Lee to spend a night there; no U.S. official was sent out to greet Lee at the airport. Administration officials feared worsening strained relations with Beijing in the weeks leading up to the Administration’s decision on whether to renew China’s trade privileges.

“Both China and Taiwan have been carrying on their struggles against each other over and through us,” one U.S. official said.

Administration officials say there will be no change in U.S. policy concerning arms sales to Taiwan. Under an agreement signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982, the United States has agreed to limit arms sales to Taiwan to $800 million a year and, over some indefinite time period, to phase out the sales.