Political Quotes

“Senate Concurrent Resolution 9 was unanimously reported out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in March of this year. That resolution specifically calls on President Clinton to allow President Lee Teng-hui to come to the United States on a private visit, and I wish to emphasize private. House Concurrent Resolution 53 was submitted in the House by Congressmen Lantos, Solomon, and Torricelli, and adopted by the House by a rollcall vote of 396 to zero last week. Mr. President, the question is, Should we let the People's Republic of China dictate who can visit the United States? The current State Department policy of claiming that allowing President Lee to visit would upset relations with the People's Republic of China officials personally is offensive to this Senator. Taiwan is a friend. They have made great strides toward American goals--ending martial law, holding free and fair elections, allowing a vocal press, and steadily improving human rights. Taiwan is friendly, democratic, and prosperous. Taiwan is the 6th largest trading partner of the United States, and the world's 13th largest. The Taiwanese buy twice as much from the United States as from the People's Republic of China. Taiwan has the largest foreign reserves and contributes substantially to international causes. Unfortunately, the United States continues to give the cold shoulder to the leader of Taiwan.”