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PAMPHLET SERIES  NUMBER 1     36 CENTS

THE TAIWAN QUESTION

ROADBLOCK TO FRIENDSHIP

Published by U.S.-CHINA PEOPLES FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION

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U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association Statement of Principles (Adopted at Founding Convention, September, 1974)

Goal: To build active and lasting friendship based on mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of China.

Toward that end we urge the establishment of full diplomatic, trade and cultural relations between the two governments according to the principles agreed upon in the joint U.S.-China communique of February 28, 1972, and that U.S. foreign policy with respect to China be guided by these same principles: respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; non-aggression; non-interference in the internal affairs of other states; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence.

We call for the removal of all barriers to the growing friendship and exchange between our two peoples. We recognize that two major barriers are the presence of U.S. armed forces in Taiwan, a province of China, and in Indo-China in violation of the Paris agreements for ending the war.

Our educational activities include producing and distributing literature, films and photo exhibits; sponsoring speakers and study classes; speaking out against distortions and misconceptions about the People's Republic of China; publishing newspapers and pamphlets; promoting the exchange of visitors as well as technical, cultural and social experiences.

It is our intention in each activity to pay special attention to those subjects of particular interest to the people of the United States.

Everyone is invited to participate in our activities and anyone who agrees with our goal is welcome to join.

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The Taiwan Question: Roadblock to Friendship

Since the second century A. D. there have been various expeditions to Taiwan from the mainland. In 230 A. D. the Kingdom of Wu made the first formal con tact between the mainland and Yichou—the island which is now Taiwan Province. During the 6th century, Chinese immigration to Taiwan began.

In the 12th century the Penghu Islands came under the formal jurisdiction of Fukien Province, and in the mid-13th century a magistracy was set up in Penghu to exercise jurisdiction over Taiwan and nearby islands. Since this time, Taiwan has been an integral part of China.

When the western colonialists and Japan began to struggle for control of the Asian seas, Portugal seized Macao, on the coast of South China, in 1557, declared Taiwan to be a dependency and began a series of unsuccessful attempts to occupy it. In colonial fashion, they renamed Taiwan 'Formosa', 'the beautiful isle'.

In 1624 and 1626 Holland and Spain respectively occupied parts of Taiwan, expanded their holdings and took Taiwan from China for the first time. The Dutch succeeded in driving the Spanish oft the island and became the first colonial power to occupy it. In 1661-62, however the Chinese national hero, Cheng Cheng-kung, crossed the strait from the mainland, entered Taiwan with an army and, with close cooperation from the people, drove the Dutch out.

In 1684, the government of China created the Taiwan Prefecture and in 1885 Taiwan formally became a province of China. Since the 2nd Century, the island had been developed principally by settlers from Fukien and Kwang-tung provinces and by the Kaoshan nationality people of Taiwan. To the present day, the majority of the people of Taiwan Province speak either the dialect of southern Fukien or the Hakka dialect of Kwangtung Province.

After the Sino-Japanese War, in 1894, Taiwan Province was forcibly occupied by the Japanese until the time of World War II. During this period, over twenty uprisings took place on the island against the occupying forces.

At the end of World War II, the U.S. State Department White Paper (titled United States Relations With China) stated:

"The native population (of Taiwan Province) for over 50 years had been under the rule of a foreign invader and therefore welcomed the Chinese forces as liberators. During the Japanese occupation the principal hope of the people had been reunion with the mainland."

The U.S. vigorously supported China's claim to Taiwan at the Cairo (1943) and Potsdam (1945) conferences and continued to do so as long as China was under Kuomintang administration. Only as the Liberation Movement gained momentum in China did Washington have second thoughts.

American officials first began to think of an independent Taiwan as a result of the uprising of the people against the Kuomintang administration on

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the island in February, 1947.

In a swift betrayal of the people of Taiwan who had hailed them as liberators, the arriving Kuomintang officials and soldiers looted and plundered the island and abused the populace. The uprising, according to an eye-witness began with a woman who was selling cigarettes on the black market. Thirty percent of the purchase price of cigarettes was tax, as it had been under the Japanese, so a black market flourished. An officer tried to restrain her. She protested that this was the only way she could make a living. She was beaten with a rifle butt and shot; passersby in the market came to her aid. One man was shot to death by soldiers. The next day there were demonstrations and marches against the Kuomintang, and more people were killed. Soon there was a fullscale uprising.

U.S. policy regarding Taiwan was being shaped by conservative forces. General Albert A. Wedemeyer later in 1947 suggested in a major report to Washington that the people of Taiwan would welcome trusteeship under the United Nations, then U.S. dominated.

In 1949 the Kuomintang regime and the remnants of its defeated armies took refuge on Taiwan as revolution swept to power on the mainland. The People's Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1 of that year.

[A world map of the People's Republic of China, Southeast Asia]

MAP COURTESY OF NEW CHINA MAGAZINE

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During the winter of 1949-50 Washington was persuaded that Taiwan, too, would fall to the People's Liberation Army. At that time, therefore, the U.S. stressed that the island was indisputably Chinese and strategically insignificant. On January 5,1950, President Harry Truman said:

"The United States has no predatory designs on Formosa (Taiwan) or any other Chinese territory. The United States has no desire to obtain special rights or privileges or to establish military bases on Formosa at this time. Nor does it have any intention of utilizing its armed forces to intervene in the present situation. The United States Government will not pursue a course which will lead to involvement in the civil conflict in China. Similarly, the United States Government will not provide military aid or advice to the Chinese forces on Formosa."

A month later, on February 9, the State Department, in a report to Congress, stated: 'For the United States Government at this date to seek to establish a non-Chinese administration on Formosa, whether through SCAP (Supreme Commander Allied Powers) or a United Nations or Far Eastern commission sponsored plebiscite would be almost universally interpreted in mainland China and widely interpreted throughout Asia as an attempt by this government to separate Formosa from China in violation of its pledges and contrary to its long-standing policy of respecting the territorial integrity of China.'

But six months later, when the Korean civil war broke out, U.S. policy was reversed. After the outbreak of war, on June 27,195Q, for the stated reason of 'maintaining security in the Pacific', President Truman declared that the U.S. Government had decided to prevent the People's Republic of China from liberating Taiwan. On his orders, the 7th fleet, consisting of seven aircraft carriers, three heavy cruisers and forty destroyers, moved into the Taiwan Straits to protect the KMT regime on Taiwan.

In his June 27 order, which also stepped up U.S. intervention in Indochina and support for the French in their war against the people of Vietnam, Truman argued that the status of Taiwan was uncertain and had to await consideration by the United Nations and a peace settlement with Japan. The excuse for this U.S. policy was the Korean war, when, in fact it was dictated by the shift to an aggressive Asian policy. This was well advanced before the first shot was fired at the 38th parallel.

Premier Chou En-lai immediately termed the United States action 'armed aggression against the territory of China and a total violation of the United Nations Charter.'

Mindful of the State Department's earlier warning about worldwide reaction to U.S. interference in China's internal affairs, Truman sought to disarm this country's critics. In a message to Congress on July 19, he said:

"In order that there may be no doubt in any quarter about our intention regarding Formosa, I wish to state that the United States has no territorial ambitions whatever concerning that island, nor do we seek for ourselves any special position or privilege on Formosa."

But early in August, the U.S. 13th Air Force established Advanced

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Command Headquarters on the island. Later, in conjunction with the 20th Air Force, operation air bases were set up.

The conversion of the island to a U.S. military outpost was a triumph for General Douglas MacArthur who, on August 20, called Taiwan the United States' 'unsinkable aircraft carrier' on the Western Pacific front.

At this point, the U.S. Government built up a vast network of military bases in the Western Pacific stretching from Alaska through the Aleutian Islands, Japan, Ryukyu Islands, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam, extended to Thailand. The network was designed for the encirclement of China; the aim was, in the words of General Claire Chennault, 'To strangle the Communists by blockade, by starvation if necessary.' U.S. strategy included both an economic embargo—and clandestine military espionage and harassment operations.

As troops under MacArthur's command drove northward through Korea toward the Yalu River in defiance of the Chinese warning that an approach to her border would not be tolerated, the Chinese recorded hundreds of intrusions into her airspace by U.S. military aircraft and the strafing and bombing of Chinese towns.

The U.S. Government in October 1950, submitted the so-called 'Question of Formosa' to the 5th United Nations Assembly. It requested an investigation of the U.N. in regard to the 'Status of Taiwan', and advocated placing Taiwan under U.N. trusteeship. The result was United Nations recognition of the government on Taiwan as the legitimate representative of all China.

From 1950 to 1954 the Kuomintang on Taiwan, armed by the United States, attacked, sank, forcibly detained or plundered more than 470 Chinese merchant vessels as well as 67 vessels flying the flags of Britain, Denmark, Italy, Greece and Western Germany because they were defying the U.S.-Kuomintang embargo of the People's Republic of China.

On July 26, 1954, U.S. aircraft again invaded Chinese airspace, this time over the island of Hainan, off the South China coast, and shot down two aircraft that sought to challenge them.

The People's Republic responded on August 22 with the declaration:

"We solemnly proclaim to the whole world: Taiwan is China's territory. The Chinese people are determined to liberate Taiwan."

This statement of national policy was reinforced on September 23 by Premier Chou En-lai in his Report on the Work of the Government to the First National People's Congress:

"The Chinese people must liberate Taiwan. As long as Taiwan is not liberated, China's territory is not intact. China cannot have a tranquil environment for peaceful construction, and peace in the Far East and throughout the world is not secure... ...in order to further reduce international tension, in order to eliminate the threat of war and safeguard world peace, we maintain that the U.S. fleet occupying the Taiwan Strait must be withdrawn."

In September, 1954, in Manila, the U.S. Government organized the

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South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), whose main target was China. The Kuomintang and the U.S. Government concluded and signed the Mutual Defense Treaty in December.

In 1958 the U.S. Government in the name of the Mutual Defense Treaty, engaged in a series of military provocations against the People's Republic of China. Once more the United States placed itself in the center of directly intervening in China's Civil War. In an effort to block China from liberating Quemoy and Matsu Islands which lie in inland waters off the coast of Fukien Province, the United States dispatched the Army, Navy and Marines with aircraft carriers equipped with nuclear bombs, into the Taiwan Straits and placed guided missiles on Taiwan.

On September 4, 1958, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, in a statement authorized by Eisenhower, said:

"The United States is bound by treaty to help defend Taiwan from armed attack and the President is authorized by joint resolution of Congress to employ the armed forces of the United States for the securing and protecting of related positions such as Quemoy and Matsu."

Three days later, on September 7, four U.S. warships entered China's territorial waters in the vicinity of those islands and on September 8, the U.S. Forces Command on Taiwan announced that U.S. forces would blockade China's coastal islands with gunboats and artillery fire. Eight naval vessels were already at battle stations.

Between September 10 and 20 China recorded and warned against repeated violations of her territorial integrity by U.S. aircraft and naval vessels, while the U.S. command on Taiwan threatened that 'American jet fighters have been ordered to attack and kill Communist planes pouncing on Nationalist supply planes in the Quemoy area. U.S. planes might follow MIG's to their mainland bases and bomb those bases.'

The readiness of the United States to use nuclear weapons at the time of the 1958 crisis became known. Further details were revealed in a secret Rand Corporation study which was among the papers disclosed by Daniel Ellsberg. The journalist, Jack Anderson, commented on the report in his column of December 27, 1974. 'The military brass wanted to use tactical nuclear weapons to destroy China's underground munitions dumps and gun emplacements,' the Rand study said.

'The Pentagon, therefore, falsely informed the White House that available Air Force planes had no bomb racks that could accommodate high explosive conventional bombs powerful enough to knock out the underground installations. It would take 'nukes', the Pentagon insisted, to do the job.'

'President Eisenhower and Secretary of State Dulles tentatively approved the Pentagon request, according to Anderson's account.

Thus, 'the United States was ready to fight a nuclear war 16 years ago over two insignificant Islands, which today draw no more than a shrug from our policy makers,' Anderson observed.

It was Chinese patience rather than American prudence that prevented the outbreak of an all-out war at that time.

In the years that followed, in spite of all the U.S. efforts to keep the world from trading with and recognizing China, there occurred an historic

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development in which more and more nations began to trade and develop friendly relations with China. World opinion built up to reinstate China in the United Nations while the U.S. maneuvered to change U.N. voting rules to postpone that day. By the time the overwhelming majority of U.N. member nations voted China in, and the illegal Taiwan government out, U.S. aggressive policy was being defeated in Asia through resistance of the Vietnamese people and the anti-war protest by the peoples of the United States and the western world. The balance of forces in the world was shifting. This new international situation impelled the U.S. to a new approach, and in February, 1972, former President Richard Nixon journeyed to Peking. The Sino-U.S. Joint Communique, known as the Shanghai Communique, which summed up the results of his mission stated what appeared to be an official end to the cold war policy toward China.

In the Shanghai Communique the U.S. pledged to 'progressively reduce its force and military installations on Taiwan as tension in the area diminishes.'

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According to reports, the last fighter-bomber squadron has been withdrawn, and the U.S. military force on the island will be reduced to some 2,000 by mid-1975.

The withdrawal of American forces, however, has gone hand-in-hand with the buildup of Kuomintang armed forces. The U.S. has allowed the Taipei regime to co-produce F-SE fighter planes and has supplied it with two submarines and a number &f destroyers and other surface ships. In 1973 U.S. credit sales of arms to Taipei totalled $45.2 million. In fiscal 1974 they were $60 million, and the 1975 total is expected to reach $80 million.

For more than two decades the U.S. saw Taiwan as a base for a Chinese counter-revolution, and while the Indochina War showed the illusory character of this idea, the Pentagon has made very clear it would be loath to relinquish an island that is part of its forward position in the western Pacific.

Demonstrating the gap between U.S. talk of a lessening commitment to Taiwan and its actual deeds is the fact that Taiwan was permitted to open

Continued involvement of U.S. business in Taiwan is graphically demonstrated in these ads taken from the special supplement to the New York Times paid for by Taiwan.

[Newspaper advertisement clippings featuring u.$. financial institutions]

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two additional consulates in the United States in 1974, making a total of five which have been opened since the signing of the Shanghai Communique. New ones—in Atlanta, Kansas City, Portland, and on Guam and American Samoa—give Taiwan a total of 15 consulates on American soil, more than any other foreign country.

Commenting on the burgeoning of military, financial and political ties, New York Times correspondent Joseph Lelyveld wrote on April 6, 1975: 'If this is divorce, Taiwan has done nicely on the alimony side.'

United States military activity has kept Taiwan's economy going and has kept the way clear for American economic interests to seek power and profit in Taiwan's gold, coal, sulphur, timber, rice and hydroelectric power. By 1974, American investments neared $500 million—by far the biggest slice of the total foreign investment.

Among the major investors are Ford and Philco-Ford ($55 million), Phillips Petroleum ($38 million), General Instrument Corporation ($29 million) and RCA ($27 million). Others with large holdings on the island include ITT, DuPont, National Distillers, Gulf Oil and Mobil. Morgan Guaranty Trust, Chase Manhattan and six other major U.S. banks maintain branches in Taipei, the capital of the Kuomintang regime.

And Senator Mike Mansfield, surveying U.S.-China relations in a report to the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in January, 1975, observed:

"...All this hardly adds up to carrying out the obvious intent of the Shanghai Communique which anticipated our military disengagement from Taiwan and the Chinese Civil War, a war which ended, for all practical purposes, more than a quarter-century ago.

"In the context of the Shanghai Communique, as long as we are Involved In Taiwan, we are involved in China's internal affairs. In my judgment, there has been all too much evasion on this issue. It is in this nation's interest to bring our military posture in the Taiwan area into accordance with the Nixon-Chou agreement of 1972..."

Acknowledging that the United States still recognizes the claim of the Kuomintang on Taiwan to be the only legitimate Chinese government, Mansfield told his Senate colleagues:

"The fact that must be faced is that we cannot have it both ways. We cannot strengthen our ties with a claimant government of China on Taiwan and, at the same time expect to advance a new relationship with the government of the People's Republic of China. The Shanghai Communique was designed as a transitional arrangement: it did not predicate an indefinite ambivalance in our China policy. Chinese officials made it clear that there could be no normalization of relations until the United States terminated diplomatic relations with Taiwan."

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As the Shanghai Communique states, 'The question of Taiwan is China's internal problem.' In the Communique, the United States recognizes that Taiwan is part of China. The role of the United States in implementing the Shanghai Communique is to normalize diplomatic relations and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the People's Republic of China.

Over the years, the People's Republic of China has pursued re-unification with the Province of Taiwan. The People's Republic of China, the various cultural, sports, educational and governmental organizations and individuals have been inviting Kuomintang officials and people to visit or return to the mainland. Taiwanese in Hong Kong, Macao, Japan and the United States have organized ping-pong and other sports teams and cultural groups to participate in national competitions and celebrations in Peking.

Kuomintang officials and former generals have visited their native homes in China, via Japan. Their impressions and observations—generally favorable and encouraging have been published. These reports have filtered back to Taiwan where distortions of conditions in China have been used to influence the population on Taiwan against the People's Republic.

Recently when China released the last group of Kuomintang war criminals and agents totaling nearly 300, it stated that they were free to go to Taiwan to re-unite with their families. Ten former generals chose to do so arid for months they have been waiting in Hong Kong for Kuomintang clearance from Taiwan to return to their families. In the meantime, one has died in a Kuomintang hotel in Hong Kong.

[A photograph]

Shang Chen, former commander-in-chief of the sixth war zone of the Kuomintang, watches a theatrical performance during his recent visit to Peking.

The people-to-people relations are being generated by the Chinese peoples across the Taiwan Straits. The Chinese people will resolve their own re-unification, which is their problem as stated in the Shanghai Communique. The US-China Peoples Friendship Association believes that cessation of United States interference in Taiwan is essential both to normal state relations and to the fullest development of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.

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U.S.-CHINA AGREEMENT     SHANGHAI COMMUNIQUE

The Shanghai Communique was issued February 28, 1972, in Shanghai. People's Republic of China, This agreement followed discussions between the visiting United States delegation, led by President Nixon, and high officials of the People's Republic of China, led by Premier Chou En-lai.

(COMPLETE TEXT OF AGREEMENT FOLLOWS.)

President Richard Nixon of the United States of America visited the People's Republic of China at the invitation of Premier Chou En-lai of the People's Republic of China from February 21 to February 28, 1972. Accompanying the President were Mrs. Nixon, U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers, Assistant to the President Dr. Henry Kissinger, and other American officials.

President Nixon met with Chairman Mao Tsetung of the Community Party of China on February 21. The two leaders had a serious and frank exchange on views on Sino-U.S. relations and world affairs.

During the visit, extensive, earnest and frank discussions were held between President Nixon and Premier Chou En-lai on the normalization of relations between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China, as well as on other matters of interest to both sides. In addition, Secretary of State William Rogers and Foreign Minister Chi Peng-fei held talks in the same spirit.

President Nixon and his party visited Peking and viewed cultural, industrial and agricultural sites, and they also toured Hangchow and Shanghai where, continuing discussions with Chinese leaders, they viewed similar places of interest.

The leaders of the People's Republic of China and the United States of America found it beneficial to have this opportunity, after so many years without contact, to present candidly to one another their views on a variety of issues. They reviewed the international situation in which important changes and great upheavals are taking place and expounded their respective positions and attitudes.

The Chinese side stated: Wherever there is, oppression, there is resistance. Countries want independence, nations want liberation and the people want revolution—-this has become the irresistible trend of history. All nations, big or small, should be equal; big nations should not bully the small and strong nations should not bully the weak. China will never be a superpower and it opposes hegemony and power politics of any kind. The Chinese side stated that it firmly supports the struggles of all the oppressed people and nations for freedom and liberation and that the people of all countries have the right to choose their social systems according to their own wishes and the right to safeguard the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of their own countries and oppose foreign aggression, interference, control and subversion. All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries. The Chinese side expressed its firm support to the peoples of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia in their efforts for the attainment of their goal and its firm support to the seven-point proposal of the Provisional Revolutionary

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Government of the Republic of South Viet Nam and the elaboration of February this year on the two key problems in the proposal, and to the Joint Declaration of the Summit Conference of the Indochinese Peoples. It firmly supports the eight-point program for the peaceful unification of Korea put forward by the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on April 12, 1971, and the stand for the abolition of the "U.N. Commission for the Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea". It firmly opposes the revival and outward expansion of Japanese militarism and firmly supports the Japanese people's desire to build an independent, democratic, peaceful and neutral Japan. It firmly maintains that India and Pakistan should, in accordance with the United Nations resolutions on the India-Pakistan question, immediately withdraw all their forces to their respective territories and to their own sides of the ceasefire line in Jammu and Kashmir and firmly supports the Pakistan Government and people in their struggle to preserve their independence and sovereignty and the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their struggle for the right of self-determination.

The U.S. side stated: Peace in Asia and peace in the world requires efforts both to reduce immediate tensions and to eliminate the basic causes of conflict. The United States will work for a just and secure peace: just, because it fulfills the aspirations of peoples and nations for freedom and progress; secure, because it removes the danger of foreign aggression. The United States supports individual freedom and social progress for all the peoples of the world, free of outside pressure or intervention. The United States believes that the effort to reduce tensions is served by improving communication between countries that have different ideologies so as to lessen the risks of confrontation through accident, miscalculation or misunderstanding. Countries should treat each other with mutual respect and be willing to compete peacefully, letting performance be the ultimate judge. No country should claim infallibility and each country should be prepared to re-examine its own attitudes for the common good. The United States stressed that the peoples of Indochina should be allowed to determine their destiny without outside intervention; its constant primary objective has been a negotiated solution; the eight-point proposal put forward by the Republic of Viet Nam and the United States on January 27, 1972 represents a basis for the attainment of that objective; in the absence of a negotiated settlement the United States envisages the ultimate withdrawal of all U.S. forces from the region consistent with the aim of self-determination for each country of Indochina. The United States will maintain its close ties with and support for the Republic of Korea; the United States will support efforts of the Republic of Korea to seek a relaxation of tension and increased communication in the Korean peninsula. The United States places the highest value on its friendly relations with Japan; it will continue to develop the existing close bonds. Consistent with the United Nations Security Council Resolution of December 21, 1971, the United States favors the continuation of the ceasefire between India and Pakistan and the withdrawal of all military forces to within their own territories and to their own sides of the ceasefire line in Jammu and Kashmir; the United States supports the right of the peoples of South Asia to shape their own future in peace, free of military threat, and without having the area become the subject of great power rivalry.

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There are essential differences between China and the United States in their social systems and foreign policies. However, the two sides agreed that countries, regardless of their social systems, should conduct their relations on the principles of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, non-aggression against other states, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. International disputes should be settled on this basis, without resorting to the use or threat of force. The United States and the People's Republic of China are prepared to apply these principles to their mutual relations.

With these principles of international relations in mind the two sides stated that:

— progress toward the normalization of relations between China and the United States is in the interests of all countries;

— both wish to reduce the danger of international military conflict: neither should seek hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region and each is opposed to efforts by any other country or group of countries to establish such hegemony; and

— neither is prepared to negotiate on behalf of any third party or to enter into agreements or understandings with the other directed at other states. Both sides are of the view that it would be against the interests of the peoples of the world for any major country to collude with another against other countries, or for major countries to divide up the world into spheres of interest.

The two sides reviewed the long-standing serious disputes between China and the United States. The Chinese side reaffirmed its position: The Taiwan question is the crucial question obstructing the normalization of relations between China and the United States; the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government of China; Taiwan is a province of China which has long been returned to the motherland; the liberation of Taiwan is China's internal affair in which no other country has the right to interfere; and all U.S. forces and military installations must be withdrawn from Taiwan. The Chinese Government firmly opposes any activities which aim at the creation of "one China, one Taiwan', "one China, two governments", "two Chinas", an "independent Taiwan" or advocate that "the status of Taiwan remains to be determined".

The U.S. side declared: The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position. It reaffirms its interest in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinese themselves. With this prospect in mind, it affirms the ultimate objective of the withdrawal of all U.S. forces and military installations from Taiwan. In the meantime, it will progressively reduce its forces and military installations on Taiwan as the tension in the area diminishes.

The two sides agreed that it is desirable to broaden the understanding between the two peoples. To this end, they discussed specific areas in such fields as science, technology, culture, sports and journalism, in which

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people-to-people contacts and exchanges would be mutually beneficial. Each side undertakes to facilitate the further development of such contacts and exchanges.

Both sides view bilateral trade as another area from which mutual benefit can be derived, and agreed that economic relations based on equality and mutual benefit are in the interest of the peoples of the two countries. They agree to facilitate the progressive development of trade between their two countries.

The two sides agreed that they will stay in contact through various channels, including the sending of a senior U.S. representative to Peking from time to time for concrete consultations to further the normalization of relations between the two countries and continue to exchange views on issues of common interest.

The two sides expressed the hope that the gains achieved during this visit would open up new prospects for the relations between the two countries. They believe that the normalization of relations between the two countries is not only in the interest of the Chinese and American peoples but also contributes to the relaxation of tension in Asia and the world. President Nixon, Mrs. Nixon and the American party expressed their appreciation for the gracious hospitality shown them by the Government and people of the People's Republic of China.

[Old ordering information trimmed]

AUGUST 1975

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