78-05-A4
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China
TranscriptTwas Bobby Burns the poet, who said something to the effect of "Having the gift to see ourselves as others see us." I'll be right back. In this time of doubt and mistrust when we're curbing the ability of our own intelligence machinery to keep us informed, it's especially interesting to note how effective by contrast are the Chinese on Taiwan. Their record of making public top-secret material from the Communist Chinese on the mainland is amazing and I might add very helpful to us. For example, we now have the complete text of a 42,000 word, several hour speech by Peking's foreign minister, Huang Hua, delivered last July 30th to top level government and party functionaries. It was a report on the entire world situation and definitely not for public consumption. Repeatedly Hua cautioned his audience against talking about anything they were hearing. Now you know, of course, I'm not going to give you all 42,000 words but I thought you might be interested in how we look to the Chinese Communists who wanna normalize relations with us, providing we'll forget about our friendship with Taiwan. Hua referred to the Shanghai communique jointly signed by our two countries as, quote, "Like other treaties and agreements, merely something on paper." Unquote. He then went on to say, "The United States does not have the strength to determine the resolution of the Chinese people to liberate Taiwan. We will simply regard their treaty with Taiwan as a scrap of paper." Unquote. He suggested that it was nothing more than that to us and asked if the American people have the will to share the fate of Taiwan if and when Peking sets out to conquer the Republic of China. Answering his own question, he said, "Go read American history. We have not seen such an instance in which the United States has had such resolve and courage to sacrifice for others. That is why we dare to conclude that the United States is a paper tiger. It can be said that we have the deepest insight into the United States and after having dealt with it for such a long time, we can paint not only its skin but also its bones." Unquote. Now that isn't the picture we have of ourselves and history does not support Hua's image of us, but we should note the examples from recent history he used to support his view. The firing of MacArthur because he wanted to win the Korean War and our failure to be decisive in Vietnam. He spoke of the frailty of the paper tiger that could not withstand a beating. Hua said, China would in effect be patient until it had the relationship it wanted with us, then it would liberate Taiwan and we wouldn't lift a finger. If we really want peace we'd better remind the world of that America it seems to have forgotten. The one that stands by its commitments. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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