Talking Taiwan: Gerrit van der Wees: The Past and Present State of U.S. Taiwan Relations

August 2, 2022 Felicia Lin

In June I spoke with Gerrit van der Wees about an article that he wrote about U.S. President Biden’s remarks about U.S. Taiwan relations when he was in Tokyo in May.

[LISTEN to the Complete Episode HERE on APPLE PODCASTS or SPOTIFY]

Just last week, Gerrit wrote a very timely article about the controversy over the U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plans to visit Taiwan. In April Pelosi had planned to visit Taiwan as part of a tour to the Indo Pacific region but had to cancel because she contracted COVID-19.

Last week Pelosi left with a delegation for Asia, but made no mention of visiting Taiwan. There had been speculation that the Chinese would attack if U.S. fighter jets escorted Pelosi’s plane into Taiwan, and in a phone conversation with U.S. president Joe Biden, Chinese president Xi Jinping warned Biden against “playing with fire” over Taiwan.

In his piece for the Taipei Times, Gerrit stated that it is essential that Pelosi stands her ground and pushes through with her plan to visit Taiwan. We’ll share Gerrit’s Taipei Times article and a few others about this situation on our website for this episode.

In my interview with Gerrit I asked him to explain in detail what the Taiwan Relations Act is, and what it tells us about the relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan. We also talked about the so-called U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity, how his work on the Taiwan Communique evolved from 1980 to 2016, and his thoughts on the war in Ukraine, and how it relates to China and Taiwan.

About Gerrit van der Wees

Gerrit van der Wees is a former Dutch diplomat. From 1980 through 2016, he served as chief-editor of “Taiwan Communiqué.” Also, from 2005 through 2016 he was liaison for the Senate and the State Department at FAPA-HQ. He currently teaches the History of Taiwan at George Mason University and Current issues in East Asia at George Washington University’s Elliott School for International Affairs.

This episode of Talking Taiwan has been sponsored by NATWA, the North America Taiwanese Women’s Association.

NATWA was founded in 1988, and its mission is:

to evoke a sense of self-esteem and enhance women’s dignity,
to oppose gender discrimination and promote gender equality,
to fully develop women’s potential and encourage their participation in public affairs,
to contribute to the advancement of human rights and democratic development in Taiwan,
to reach out and work with women’s organizations worldwide to promote peace for all.

To learn more about NATWA visit their website: www.natwa.com

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks on the U.S.’s willingness to help defend Taiwan
The Taiwan Relations Act, the document that contains US commitments to (help) defend Taiwan, and its first two clauses
How U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken referred to the second clause of the Taiwan Relations Act in a speech he made at the end of May
What the second clause of the Taiwan Relations Act says and means
The background of the Taiwan Relations Act
How Harvey Feldman of the East Asia Pacific desk of the U.S. State Department was involved in initially drafting the Taiwan Policy Act
How in 1979 the U.S. Congress started drafting the Taiwan Relations Act which had security clauses and a human rights clause embedded within it
How Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Claiborne Pell, and Congressman Jim Leach were instrumental in drafting the Taiwan Relations Act and getting it passed in April 1979
The establishment of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in January 1979
Mark Chen’s (陳唐山) work with Senators and Congressmen to ensure that the Taiwan Relations Act took into consideration the native Taiwanese perspective
The Taiwan Communique and why it was established
How news from and about Taiwan while under martial law was obtained, communicated and printed in the Taiwan Communique
How dangwai (outside party) magazines: Měilì dǎo aka Formosa Magazine (美麗島) and Bāshí niándài aka 1980s (8十年代) were sources of information for the Taiwan Communique
How the George Washington University library has a complete collection of dangwai magazines from Taiwan
The censorship of postal mail that was received in and sent out from Taiwan during the martial law era
After the Taiwan democratized in the early 1990s the focus of the Taiwan Communique shifted to working to gain more international recognition for Taiwan
What the “One China Policy” means from the perspective of the U.S. and China
How the “One China Policy” which was based on the 1970s, a time in which Beijing and Taipei that claimed to be the government of China
How things have changed since the 1970s, which requires an adjustment in policy to reflect current times
What makes the Taiwan Relations Act so unique
How Taiwan meets all the requirements of a nation state according to the Montevideo Convention of 1933
How Montevideo Convention states that the existence of an independent state does not depend on the recognition of other states
When the United States of America declared independence in 1776 there were no other countries that recognized the new government in Washington D.C. for two years
For the first 25 years of the United States of America it was only recognized by seven countries
The Taiwan Travel Act
Why the U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity toward Taiwan is not a policy
How the term “strategic ambiguity” dates back to the mid-1990s
Robert Suettinger’s 2003 book, Beyond Tiananmen
Gerrit’s thoughts on the war in Ukraine and what China is taking away from the situation
Gerrit’s observations on how the war in Ukraine has impacted the people of Taiwan
Things that Taiwan need to reconsider about its military strategy

LISTEN to Episode 199: Gerrit van der Wees: The Past and Present State of U.S. Taiwan Relations HERE

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[LISTEN to the Complete Episode HERE on APPLE PODCASTS or SPOTIFY]

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

Related Links:

LISTEN to Episode 199: Gerrit van der Wees: The Past and Present State of U.S. Taiwan Relations HERE