Open Letter to the Committee for a Sane U.S.- China Policy “U.S. Hands Off Taiwan and the South China Sea,”
Joseph Gerson
Committee for a Sane U.S.- China Policy
Dear Joseph Gerson,
Thank you for your recent update on U.S. policies toward China and your factsheet on the “One China” Policy Explained. As our nation is taking a more aggressive military stance around the world, it is important that we have a full and open discussion of U.S. foreign policy, with all viewpoints represented. At the same time, I am reluctant to endorse your suggestion that both China and the U.S. must share in the responsibility for the current dangerous situation. Primary responsibility lies with U.S. imperialism.
As an alternative, I hope you will consider the enclosed statement from Veterans For Peace, “U.S. Hands Off Taiwan and the South China Sea,” which states, in part that
“The time when the U.S. Navy patrolled the Yangtze River is over. The Eurocentric idea that Asian nations require the United States to defend them from themselves has no place in the Twenty First Century. The People’s Republic of China does not now, nor has it ever, threatened the territorial security or people’s well-being of the United States or any NATO country, and
“Therefore Be It Resolved that Veterans For Peace urges the government of the United States to withdraw all military and naval forces from the Straits of Taiwan and the South China Sea and re-examine U.S. arms sales to the Republic of China in Taiwan, and
“Be It further Resolved that Veterans For Peace urges its members and supporters to remember that the resolution of the status of Taiwan is the internal affair of the Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Straits into which the United States has no right to intervene.”
NOTE: This resolution does not endorse any political party within the PRC nor any internal policy of the PRC, nor does it favor China over any other Asian nation. Our resolution simply grows out of a central part of our mission: to restrain our government from intervening overtly or covertly in the internal affairs of other nation.
FURTHER: While we insist on restraining our government from intervening overtly or covertly in the internal affairs of other nations, we want to encourage people-to-people relations between the U.S. and China, including student exchanges, tourism, and fair trade.
In addition to our statement, “U.S. Hands Off Taiwan and the South China Sea,” I am also enclosing another VFP Statement, “Pivot to Peace with China and the World,” which applies our VFP principles to China,
I look forward to your response.
With solidarity in our common struggle for peace,
Eugene E Ruyle
President, VFP East Bay Chapter 162 (Berkeley/Oakland)
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies
California State University, Long Beach
Johnson Choi Biz 