◎John J. Tkacik

◎John J. Tkacik

As we all know, the U.S. policy toward Taiwan is based on three classic texts: the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three U.S.-China Communiqués, and the Six Guarantees to Taiwan.

However, the U.S. State Department now seems to be using a fourth document. The name of the document is unremarkable. It is "State Department Telegram No. 87604" dated June 26, 2007. Taiwan's wording".

After being buried in dust for a long time, "State Council Telegram No. 87604 in 2007" seems to have been rediscovered at the State Department headquarters in Foggy Bottom.

I doubt that this document will go down in history along with the three canonical classics, but it now seems to have more influence on American diplomacy with Taiwan than ever before.

Please read on...

07 State Council Telegram No. 87604

At the summits of Southeast Asian leaders in the past month, I originally expected that the "State Council Telegram No. 87604 in 2007" would have an opportunity to show my face, but I didn't.

In mid-November, on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) Leaders Summit held in Bali, Indonesia, the talks between US President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping were somewhat novel, but this telegram did not surface; The class has begun to declare that Taiwan is not only "one" of China's core interests, but in fact, "the Taiwan issue is the core of China's core interests", which is the reddest of the red lines.

Over the past decade or so, Washington has grown accustomed to Beijing's rhetoric on Taiwan.

Because of this, it is difficult for us to discern what China's "core interests" are.

In fact, in December 2022, we can be sure that "Taiwan" cannot be "the core of China's core interests".

The subject should be replaced with "Covid-19".

Otherwise, China's leadership will not be willing to spend trillions of yuan to control the death rate of the new crown pneumonia of 1.4 billion people to only three within six months.

Yes, that's right.

Reports last month said China had only three Covid-19 deaths from May to October 2022, and only 595 deaths so far this year.

Moreover, those three unfortunate patients were all over eighty-seven years old.

Still, I searched everywhere for any new language on U.S. Taiwan policy that might have been missing from coverage of the G20 summit.

But I didn't find any.

Both China and Russia have aggressively lobbied over the wording of the G20's "leaders' statement" proposing to end or at least ease sanctions on Russian food, fertilizer and energy exports.

And in order to avoid sanctions on its main export products, Russia even accepted the wording of "condemning" "waging war" against Ukraine.

So at the G20 summit in Bali, and several other ASEAN and APEC summits in the region last month, Chinese diplomats didn't really pay attention Focus on the "Taiwan issue".

Last week, however, I discovered something else by accident.

This is the protest of the Chinese delegation at the 19th Conference of the Parties (CoP19) held in Panama from November 14 to 25 .

There, the "Proposition 10" proposed by the US delegation was hidden in the voluminous routine environmental and conservation reports.

However, I guarantee that the content of this proposal will not be as boring as it sounds.

Proposition 10 is an academic proposal aimed at correcting the status of the short-tailed albatross (phoebastria albatrus), saying that they nest in the "Senkaku Islands of Japan" and "Pengjiayu and Penghu Islands in Taiwan".

Moreover, the US delegation's "Proposition 10" also cited "Taiwan's National Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries" in the footnotes twice. ), and added "Taiwan" to the list of "countries" with active management programs - between "Japan" and "United States".

CoP19 congress US to include Taiwan in list of countries

It is not known whether the scientists on the US delegation have consulted with the State Department on their draft proposal.

State Department officials were also part of the U.S. CoP19 Congress delegation.

Moreover, the United States has a clear directive to support Taiwan in international organizations.

In fact, last year, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Taiwan's expulsion from the United Nations (October 25, 2021), U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally urged other UN member states to support "Taiwan's active and meaningful participation in The United Nations system and international organizations." On October 26, the spokesperson of the US State Department was asked about the "meaning" of the term "meaningful participation": Does it mean "participation independent of Beijing"?

Facing the camera, the spokesman appeared to be smiling, as if pleased that the State Department's secretive policy had been deciphered, without requiring him to take the time to formally explain its mysteries.

Back at the CoP19 conference, the Chinese delegation requested that the following statement be included in the meeting minutes:

"The U.S. proposal is full of misrepresentations, listing Taiwan as a country, and not correctly stating that Taiwan Province is part of China. What the U.S. has done violates the U.S. government's repeated stance on adhering to the 'one China' principle and seriously violates the China's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

China claimed that the US move "violated international law", but did not cite any chapter or article to support its claim.

The new trend of the United States towards Taiwan rediscovers the 2007 telegram

However, this scene at the 19th CITES Conference of the Parties in Panama shows a new trend in the United States' attitude towards Taiwan in international organizations.

The listing of "Taiwan" as a "country"; the citation of two island groups as belonging to "Taiwan"; George W. Bush's severe protest against the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

On March 28, 2007, the new Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, sent an official letter to Nauru's representative to the United Nations.

The content is that the Secretary-General "has to draw" Ambassador Nauru's attention to "Resolution 2758 adopted by the 26th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on October 25, 1971. In this resolution, the General Assembly decided to "recognize the Chinese Representatives of the Government of the People's Republic of China are the only legal representatives of China in the United Nations Organization.' According to this resolution, the United Nations considers Taiwan to be in every way an integral part of the People's Republic of China." There is no doubt that this was in Beijing Carefully crafted wording.

These rumors eventually reached the ears of the US Secretary of State.

Diplomatic reciprocity always comes very quickly, and the United States took action after three months.

On June 26, 2007, U.S. Secretary of State Rice (Condoleezza Rice) sent the 2007 State Department Telegram No. 87604 to Acting Permanent Representative of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Alejandro Wolff, Ordered clarification of U.S. policy toward Taiwan and asked the United Nations Secretariat not to take sides in political debates about Taiwan.

The policy of the directive is concise, but its legal argument is nuanced.

Ambassador Wolf lodged the U.S. protest to the U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, which noted, inter alia, that “Resolution 2758 makes no mention of China’s claim to Taiwan.” The position statement concluded by warning, "If the UN Secretariat insists on describing Taiwan as 'part of the People's Republic of China,' or uses names that imply that, the United States will have to disassociate itself from that position on a country-by-country basis."

In 2007, that statement marked a startling shift in Taiwan's international status.

For the first time in a quarter of a century, the US State Department has had to reiterate its "longstanding and consistent" position that the US "does not formally recognize China's sovereignty over Taiwan, nor has it made any determinations regarding Taiwan's political status."

On August 13, 2007, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with US Permanent Representative to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad to discuss "the issue of the UN's wording on Taiwan's status."

Ban Ki-moon said he realized his recent public statements had gone too far and confirmed that the UN would no longer use the phrase "Taiwan is part of China".

○ Seven years telegraph clears "Taiwan is a part of China"

However, that was fifteen years ago.

Now, the State Council Telegram No. 87604 in 2007 has a new influence on the US policy towards Taiwan in international organizations.

State Department spokesman Ned Price stated on September 26, 2022, "Our 'One China' policy has not changed, we have not taken a position on (Taiwan's) sovereignty, and this policy has been It has been the core of US policy toward Taiwan since 1979, and it is still valid today.”

The strong wording of State Council Telegram No. 87604 in 2007, "If the UN Secretariat insists on describing Taiwan as 'part of the People's Republic of China'...the United States will have to distance itself from this position on a national basis." , should still be kept in the archives and records of the State Council.

The State Department clearly had to take a stand on Taiwan's international status, which guided the US delegation to put forward "Proposition 10" at the CoP19 conference.

As long as there is a need, the United States should have the courage to make clarifications.

(The author Tan Shenge is a retired American diplomat. He once served in Taipei and Beijing respectively. He is currently the director of the "Future Asia Project" of the American Center for International Assessment and Strategy. Translated by Chen Hongda of the International News Center)

The "Proposition 10" of the US CoP19 delegation also twice cited "Taiwan's National Action Plan to Reduce the Accidental Capture of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries" in the footnotes, and included "Taiwan" in the "countries with active management plans" ” list—between “Japan” and “United States.”

The picture shows the CoP19 conference.

(AFP)