CONGRESSMAN DAVID WU CALLS ON BUSH TO SUPPORT DEMOCRACY IN TAIWAN

Wu authors letter to President Bush in advance of meeting with Premiere Wen Jiabao

WASHINGTON, DC -- Congressman David Wu (D-OR), today, released the following letter to President Bush, signed by ten of his U.S. House colleagues, calling on the President to support democracy in Taiwan during his meeting with Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao on Tuesday.

The Honorable George W. Bush 
President, United States of America 
The White House 
Washington, DC 20500 

Dear Mr. President: 

        We applaud your efforts to engage the People's Republic of China (PRC), and look forward to Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Washington, DC on December 9, 2003.

        During the Premier's visit, we respectfully urge you to affirm our long-standing support for Taiwan's movement toward democratic governance. It has been, and always shall be, America's policy to support democracy, human rights, and the rule of law everywhere in the world. Whether it is a policy convenient to our statecraft at the time or not, the policy expresses a fundamentally American value.  

        In anticipation of Premier Wen's visit to Washington, we believe it is important to reaffirm our commitment to Taiwan's ability to hold free and fair elections.  It is equally important that the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait resolve the island's political status peacefully and democratically.  

	While we expressly reserve our judgment for or against Taiwan independence as an issue internal to Taiwan and China, it is the basic right of a democratic people to determine its own future.    
  
	As Americans are pushing for, bleeding for, and dying for the expansion of democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, we cannot afford to compromise the exercise of democracy in Taiwan or anywhere else in the world.  

	Thank you for your kind consideration to this important matter.  The freedom of a free people, and the liberation of those not yet free, are never to be taken lightly. We hope that you will remain consistent in promoting both fundamental American values, and international standards of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.    

With warm regards, 

Representative David Wu (D-OR) 
Representative Steve Chabot (R-OH) 
Representative Robert Menendez (D-NJ) 
Representative Peter Deutsch (D-FL) 
Representative Gary Ackerman (D-NY) 
Representative Lane Evans (D-IL) 
Representative Shelly Berkley (D-NV) 
Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) 
Representative Robert Wexler (D-FL) 
Representative Peter King (D-NY) 
Representative Jo Ann Emerson (D-MO)