Bush Bows to China at the Expense of Taiwan

Re “President’s Rebuke of Taiwan Stirs Alarm,” Dec. 10: When President Bush sensed that Saddam Hussein might have weapons of mass destruction that would endanger the world, he launched a preemptive strike to disarm Iraq.

Now, China has deployed over 400 ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan and repeatedly threatened to use them. Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian simply wants to call a “defensive referendum” to ask for China’s removal of missiles, and Bush said he opposed it. What kind of double standard is this?

Kuo-Chang Chen

Chatsworth

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Re “White House Gives Taiwan a Warning,” Dec. 9: To ease the political tension across the Taiwan Strait, Washington is applying stern diplomatic pressure to Taiwan not to hold the March 2004 referendum on relations with China. It is amazing that the U.S. could come out opposing the very basic exercise of a democracy to hold a national referendum that relates to its independence -- a self-determination by the 23 million Taiwanese people -- while it is engaged heavily in democratic nation-building in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Where is the credibility in U.S. foreign policy? When Washington is speaking from two corners of its mouth, no Islamic countries will believe in the U.S. effort to bring democracy to the Middle East. Is this the way to conduct our foreign policy?

Paul Lynn

Eagle Rock