Taipei, April 15 (CNA) Taiwan will not be a U.S. bargaining chip to be traded for strategic relationship between the U.S. and China, a visiting former U.S. congressional leader said Sunday in an international seminar.
Henry Hyde, a former chairman of the U.S. House International Relations Committee, assured the people of Taiwan that the U.S. will not sacrifice its long friendship with Taiwan in exchange for political gains in the seminar titled "Taiwan's Rise to Democracy: Realities and Prospects."
Hyde, 83, made the remark after he mentioned the "Six Assurances" made by the Reagan Administration in 1982.
Stressing Taiwan's strategic importance to the world, Hyde reiterated a view central to his 2001 speech that "a free and uncoerced Taiwan is the key to the possibility of a genuinely close relationship between the U.S. and China", and a democratic Taiwan guarantees that China's growing impact in the international system will be positive.
In fact, "Taiwan may hold the key in China's destiny, " he said, adding that China has stepped up its suppression of Taiwan "partly because of its discomfort at Taiwan's success in democracy."
"You [Taiwanese] are carrying the banner of democracy in the Chinese world, " he said.
However, Taiwan should be willing to defend itself, especially in the face of China's military buildup, he said.
"The old saying 'God helps those who help themselves' seems applicable to the situation of Taiwan, " he said, noting that the priorities of U.S. foreign policy dramatically changed after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
While the U.S. will continue to pursuit closer commercial ties with Taiwan and provide defensive weapons, Taiwan should continue to outshine China in fields such as democratization and economic development, among others, Hyde said.
The one-day seminar was organized by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).