UCLA’s political science and Chinese studies departments
hosted an unprecedented two-week discourse on international
diplomacy, gathering distinguished visiting scholars from China,
Taiwan and the United States.
The informal discussion sought to introduce students and faculty
members to the complexities of United States, Chinese and Taiwanese
relations.
“This is the first time this has been done here at
UCLA,” said event organizer and Political Science Professor
Richard Baum. “The idea was to bring people from all three
sides to UCLA and facilitate an extended conversation to see if we
can find a solution to international issues.”
Baum, also director of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, was
a consultant of Chinese policies in 1989, briefing President George
H. W. Bush on Chinese diplomacy.
The visiting scholars have been featured in political science
lectures, a graduate student symposium and a forum entitled China,
Taiwan and the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.
Baum emphasized that this is the best relationship the United
States has had with China in 25 years.
At the beginning of the Bush administration, relations with
China were tense and almost adversarial, especially with the
collision of a U.S. EP3 spy plane and a Chinese F-8 jet in 2001,
killing a Chinese pilot.
But after Sept. 11, 2001, with increasing terrorist activity
from Islamic fundamentalists in northern China, Chinese-American
relations have found commonality in a corporate fight against
terrorism.
“China’s similar problems with terrorism show that
we are not at opposite ends of the issue of the war against
terrorism,” Baum said.
Speakers also addressed growing concern with the reunification
of Taiwan with China and the possible role of the United
States.
Chien-min Chao, an adviser to the Taiwanese Democratic
Progressive Party and professor at the National Cheng-chi
University in Taipei, highlighted the pressing concerns of
Taiwanese independence from China in a number of his addresses.
“Taiwan is a small island and has been generally ignored.
But it’s important to raise the awareness of the oppression
that we have been under,” said Chao.
Chao illustrated the oppressed status that Taiwan has been
subjected to by the international community and China by noting the
prohibition of Taiwan’s attendance at the Olympics.
For the past 10 years Taiwan has not been allowed to participate
under the name of Taiwan in the Olympics, an apolitical athletic
event.
Expressing prolonged frustration of the Taiwanese, Chao said
Taiwan has been denied United Nations membership and World Health
Organization medical attention due to lacking international
recognition of Taiwanese sovereignty.
He attributed the protracted problems between Taiwan and China
to fundamental differences in ideological values and national
culture.
Representing China’s argument for cross-strait
reunification, Professor Jiemian Yang from the Shanghai Institute
of International Studies emphasized the idea of one China.
He argued both Taiwanese and Chinese people come from the same
cultural heritage and share the same language, and thus should
embrace peaceful reunification.
Allen Whiting, regents professor emeritus at the University of
Arizona, discussed the implications of U.S. involvement in
cross-strait conflict.
Whiting said it is counter to U.S. democratic values to allow a
democratic nation such as Taiwan to be turned over to a Communist
regime like that of China.