Taiwan Interest Groups And Their Influence On Sino-U.S. Relations

Although the making of U.S. foreign policies depends on its national interests, they are greatly influenced by various kinds of interest groups. Interest groups politics represents money politics in the U.S. and the rising of it has peculiar political, social and ideological reasons. Among factors influencing and constraining the development of Sino-U.S. relations, Taiwan issue is the most sensitive and important one. After Chiang Kai-shek regime was defeated in Chinese Civil War and withdrew to Taiwan, they started building lobbying groups in the U.S. of which the Committee of One Million established in1950s was most famous. The Taiwan authorities tried to influence China policies of the U.S. through lobbying and declined to recognize the founding of new China thus illegally held position in the United Nations for more than two decades. The social impact of the Committee of One Million in the U.S. was so huge that it was almost known to everybody at that time. The anti-communism in American society during the same period also made possible for the KMT to seek more development. Taiwan interest groups took advantage of the deficiency of separation of powers according to which the President and the Congress constrained each other and they mainly lobbied the Congress to formulate bills that supported Taiwan. Some pro-Taiwan congressmen even established the Taiwan Caucus to publicize and draw attention to the Taiwan issue. After the normalization of Sino-U.S. relations and the U.S. diplomatic recognition of PRC, the impact of the Committee of One Million gradually became weakened, but Taiwan authorities still struggled to seek the position of sovereign states. In1979, the Coordination Council of North American Affairs was established by Taiwan authorities as unofficial embassy in U.S. And because of the separatists’furious activities, interest groups on behalf of separatism were established which exerted passive influence on and destroyed the reunification cause of China. The establishment of DPP made the political environment more complicated within Taiwan and pro-DPP interest groups such as FAPA and WUFI were formed in such context.The Taiwan issue is in nature a domestic political issue of China, however, has become the weapon for the U.S. to constrain mainland China. The passage of bills concerning China policy is carefully planned and promoted by Taiwan interest groups. Li Denghui’s visit to the U.S. in1995was also made possible because of FAPA’s efforts and then the Sino-U.S. relations worsened to the lowest level since the establishment of bilateral relations of the two countries. After the end of the Cold War and the implement of reform and opening-up policy in China, the Sino-U.S. relations has got new development which the U.S.-Taiwan relations must take into consideration.