Promoting Cross-Strait Stability: Avoiding Catastrophe
March 08, 2005
In this op-ed piece that appeared in CSIS
PacNet Newsletter, Alan D. Romberg argues that the
anti-secession law to be passed by National People's Congress of China
could seriously escalate tensions across Taiwan Strait and threaten
vital US national security interests. An excerpt is provided below.
While
US policymakers and the U.S. public are focused on incipient nuclear
weapons programs in Iran and North Korea, a far more suble challenge to
U.S. national security interests involving an established nuclear power
looms elsewhere. The People's Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan are
apparently determined to measure up to Abba Eban's famous quip about
Palestinians: they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
While both claim to embrace creative and flexible approaches to their
relations, in fact each insists on rigid, mutually incompatable demands
that promise not only to squander chances to improve cross-Strait ties,
but to actually blunder into an escalation of tensions. If so, this
would also threaten vital U.S. national security interests.
To
read the entire op-ed, click on the PDF link above.
