To Resist Any Resort to Force

Some complicated maneuvers to protect a former ally

"It's a bit of a sham," said Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. "We're trying to find an instrumentality to preserve the status quo." Or, as a House staffer explained it, "the idea was to create a country without calling it a country."

The problem was Taiwan, which until last month was recognized by the U.S. as the Republic of China. Under President Carter's agreement to normalize relations with Peking, the recognition of Taiwan must cease, and yet the U.S. was determined to work out some form of pseudodiplomatic relationship. The result was a lawyer's delight. As of March 1, what used to be the government of China becomes an entity officially designated as "the people on Taiwan"; the U.S. embassy in Taiwan becomes the American Institute, a nonprofit organization incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia; the Taiwanese embassy in Washington becomes the Coordination Council for North American Affairs, an "instrumentality established by the people on Taiwan." Inscrutable though these new "instrumentalities" may appear, they will enable the U.S. and Taiwan to preserve all their previous economic, legal and cultural ties.

More important, however, the normalization requires the abrogation of Washington's 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty with Taiwan, and many key Senators were dismayed that the U.S. had won no promise from Peking not to regain Taiwan by force. Their concern was especially germane in light of the current Chinese invasion of Viet Nam. Conservative members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee demanded that the enabling legislation for the opening of relations include a strong reassertion of U.S. guarantees to protect Taiwan. For a time, they thought they had the support of both Committee Chairman Frank Church and ranking Republican Member Jacob Javits. Both Senators permitted use of their names on a draft resolution that would brand an armed attack on Taiwan "a common danger to the peace and security" of both Taiwan and the U.S.

Administration supporters within the committee mobilized against the draft. Senator John Glenn, chairman of the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, declared that such a document would be "offensive to the People's Republic." After a visit to the White House, Church said he did not endorse the draft but simply wanted to get a discussion under way. Church, Javits and Glenn then began talking of a compromise. Their solution: the U.S. "will maintain its capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion" against Taiwan, and will provide the island with "a sufficient self-defense character." This was something less than a defense commitment to Taiwan, but the Carter Administration had originally sought no specific reference to Taiwan's defense at all.

Church's committee last week unanimously approved the compromise and both the full Senate and House are expected to approve it before March 1. But there remains a problem: South Carolina's Democrat Ernest F. Rollings, whose Senate Appropriations Subcommittee has refused to approve one nickel of the $2 million that the Administration has requested to operate its American Institute in Taipei.

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