This is the text of the 16th Annual Charles Neuhauser Memorial Lecture at the John K. Fairbank Center of Harvard University on October 24, 2007. From Stimson:
When I told my friend and colleague, Professor Steven Goldstein, Director of the Fairbank Center’s Taiwan Studies Workshop, that I had chosen the topic The U.S. “One China” Policy: Time for a Change?”, he asked if I had gone over to the “dark side.” Though he knew the answer, his rhetorical question reflected the fact that, at least in some of the circles he and I travel in there is a nascent, and perhaps more than nascent, debate about the relevance of the “one China” policy today. Calls for change come from both sides- on the one hand, from those who say the United States should “face reality,” as well as live up to its ideals, and support the independence of democratic Taiwan; and, on the other hand, from those who favor open U.S. support, not just for peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues, but for peaceful reunification as the only way to avoid an eventual crisis, indeed an eventual war.
That Americans coming at this issue from such polar opposite positions should see such fundamental problems with the policy suggests to me that the policy’s essential nuance, its “art,” if you will, and its value, are being lost and that for this reason alone it merits attention. [Full Text]
