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[Page: S1791]
[Page: S1792]
Mr. PELL. Mr. President, we are currently in the middle of a very tense period in the relationship between the United States, the People's Republic of China, and Taiwan. Military tensions, in particular, are rising. Last week, China began a week-long series of ballistic missile tests and announced it will conduct an additional set of live fire military maneuvers as well. I urge China to cancel these tests and maneuvers. Together they constitute the fourth set of major military exercises the People's Liberation Army has undertaken in the straits since last July. They are provocative, destabilizing, and only damage China's image in the eyes of the world.
There is no reason to disbelieve China's public claim that it is not planning an actual attack on Taiwan at this time. But I do not believe that these are merely routine military maneuvers, as Chinese officials have portrayed them. These tests, and the military exercises that preceded them last year, are clearly meant to intimidate the people of Taiwan in the run-up to the first fully democratic presidential election in the history of Chinese civilization. But the escalation in both scope and nature of this week's exercises raises the risk that conflict could start through miscalculation or accident. It is essential that all parties work to prevent an armed conflict that no one wants.
Chinese Premier Li Peng stated in a speech to the National People's Congress that the Taiwan issue was an internal affair and warned other countries not to interfere. In this regard I support the long-standing United States position that the issue of reunification be handled by the Chinese people on both sides of the straits, but that policy was founded on the understanding that the question of Taiwan would be resolved peacefully. When the leadership in Beijing threatens to use force against Taiwan, it challenges that understanding and Beijing itself creates an international issue. Beijing must understand that the United States does not view Chinese threats toward Taiwan as an internal Chinese affair. The United States has a strong interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits. It has a strong interest in the continued prosperity of the region--Taiwan is the world's 14th largest trading economy and the 7th largest United States trading partner. These exercises are disrupting shipping and continued military maneuvers will inevitably make investors and traders think twice about doing business in the region.
China has repeatedly sought to be considered a responsible member of the world community in a number of international fora. But if it wants the international respect it feels it deserves, it must follow that community's norms of behavior. Threatening Taiwan is not acceptable to that community. Beijing should stop these missile tests and military maneuvers and re-open talks with Taiwan through its own Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation. Negotiations between these two entities were successful in resolving a number of issues between Beijing and Taipei before China cut them off last year. China should again use these talks, and not the military, to persuade the people and the Government on Taiwan.
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