A DELICATE BALANCE

April 18, 2000
		The Clinton administration approved a military arms package to Taiwan including advanced missile systems, but did not authorize the sale of naval destroyers. After this background report, an undersecretary of defense and three experts discuss the decision.

April 10, 2000: An interview with the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Tung Chee Hwa March 20, 2000: Experts from China and Taiwan discuss election results in Taiwan and the role that mainland China has played. Dec. 14, 1999: Wen Ho Lee charged with violating security at the Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab. July 30, 1999: A member of the Chinese Embassy discusses the Falun Gong situation. July 23, 1999: China begins crackdown on Falun Gong. July 23, 1999: Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa on Taiwan and the one-country, two-systems policy. June 12, 1998: Anson Chan discusses Hong Kong's relationship with China. May 25, 1998: Martin Lee on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement. Sept. 11, 1997: Pro-democracy activist Emily Lau criticizes Hong Kong's government. Sept. 10, 1997: A conversation with Hong Kong's chief executive. July 25, 1997: Hong Kong's housing crisis tests its relationship with China.. July 3, 1997: Our correspondents in Hong Kong answer your questions about the hand-over and the territory's future. June 30, 1997: A panel discussion on the meaning of the Hong Kong hand-over May 17, 1996: A discussion on U.S. - China relations March 26, 1996: Taiwan holds its first democratic elections. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Asia.   U.S. State Department U.S. Embassy in China China trade relations Chinese consulate in New York.	GWEN IFILL: Selling American weapons to Taiwan. We start with some background from Spencer Michels. SPENCER MICHELS: In the early 1970s, when President Nixon went to China and reversed a quarter-century of antagonism between Washington and Beijing, the U.S. government began a diplomatic and military balancing act between China and Taiwan, a balancing act that continues to this day. By 1979, the U.S. established diplomatic relations with Beijing and severed formal ties with the island of Taiwan, which the Mainland regards as a renegade province. Nevertheless, Washington still provides some military support for Taiwan. Under a law known as the Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. can sell weapons that "enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient defense capability." That capability was tested in 1996, when China fired missiles into the waters just off Taiwan. The U.S. immediately sent warships into the Taiwan Straits and defused the situation. But tensions surfaced again this past February, when Beijing issued a white paper urging Taiwan to begin reunification talks. YU SHUNING, Spokesman, Chinese Embassy (Translated): If Taiwan refuses to talk, the Chinese government will be forced to take drastic action, including the use of force. SPENCER MICHELS: Despite the threat, Taiwan voters last month elected a new president whose party platform calls for independence for the island. Chen Shui-Bien has distanced himself from independence rhetoric, but his vice president-elect has been vocally defiant of Beijing. ANNETTE LU, Vice President-Elect, Taiwan: We are not choosing a messenger or a missionary from Beijing. We are choosing our national leader, the one who will lead Taiwan faithfully.
	Call for more U.S. support for Taiwan
	SPENCER MICHELS: In addition to the rhetoric, Taiwan is also engaged in an arms race with China. The island territory is currently seeking an arms deal with the U.S. that would include air-to-air missiles, air-to-sea missiles, and a long-range radar system, dubbed Pave Paws. Taiwan also wanted to buy four state-of-the-art U.S. destroyers. The Arleigh Burke class destroyers, which center around a so-called Aegis Combat System and cost $1 billion each, carry a radar system that can track more than 100 targets at once, on land, air, and sea. The destroyer sale was favored by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, whose hometown of Pascagoula, Mississippi, is where some of the warships are made. The rest are manufactured in Bath, Maine, the home state of Defense Secretary William Cohen. The number-three Republican in the House, Tom DeLay, also supported the sale. He accused the White House of having a cozy relationship with Communist-led China, which vehemently opposed the sale. REP. TOM DeLAY, Majority Whip: Having learned nothing from the folly of Munich, the Clinton administration has embraced a level of appeasement that would have embarrassed Neville Chamberlain. A Communist dictatorship becomes our strategic partner. A small democratic country becomes an irritant. SPENCER MICHELS: Yesterday, President Clinton, who was in Palo Alto, California, followed the advice of the Pentagon and rejected the destroyer sale for now. He approved sale of the radar and other items. Today, Pentagon Spokesman Ken Bacon denied that China influenced the decision. KENNETH BACON, Pentagon Spokesman: We do not consult with the People's Republic of China about our responsibilities to help the Taiwanese meet its defensive needs. Obviously, the Chinese have strong views about our relationship with Taiwan. So do we. And our relationship with Taiwan is well specified in law. We've explained that law to the people from the mainland, many, many times, and I think they understand what the law requires us to do. SPENCER MICHELS: In the wake of the President's decision not to sell the destroyers, Lott and other senators said they would continue to push a bill called the Taiwan Security Enhancement Act. It authorizes more weapons sales to Taiwan, and would establish high-level military and communication links between Washington and Taipei. It passed the House overwhelmingly in February. But some Senate Democrats have temporarily blocked the measure from reaching the Senate floor.