Negotiating the Future of Taiwan

Extract

Now that Chiang Kai-shek and the American strategy of “containment” of Asian communism have grown old together, and the dream of the Nationalist reconquest of the Mainland has faded into nothingness with President Nixon's February meeting with Chinese Communist chieftain Mao Tse-tung and Premier Chou En-lai, there stirs a question that has lain largely dormant over the past two decades: What of the future, of Taiwan (Formosa)? More specifically, should not the United States, sworn protector of Taiwan, (make provision for the Taiwanese to have a voice in determining their own future destiny?

The U.S. professes to believe that people may properly be governed only with their consent. It supports the doctrine of self-determination of nations.