GOP Platform 9: Principled American Leadership (II)
July 31 -- The following is unedited text from the 2000 Republican party platform.
Neighborhood of the Americas
Latin America and Canada have helped shape the United States and its people. The countries of the Western Hemisphere are our neighbors. For tens of millions of Americans these neighbors are also our relatives. Latin America buys more than one-fifth of U.S. exports while Canada is America’s largest trading partner. These purchases by our Latin American neighbors are rising at a rate almost twice as fast as the rate for the rest of the world. In the next decade, U.S. trade and investment in the Western Hemisphere are projected to exceed our trade and investment with either Europe or Japan. Future prospects for America’s neighborhood are extraordinarily bright.
Secure in its strength and its principles, the United States wants strong, healthy neighbors. The next American century should include all of the Americas. Democracy and free markets are again under siege from narcotics traffickers, guerrillas, economic uncertainty, and demographic upheaval. Poverty, inadequate education, rampant crime and corruption all tear at the fabric of several of these societies. In Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and other countries, democracy is faltering or under serious attack.
The next Republican president will pay serious and sustained attention to the American neighborhood. In concert with the Congress, he will work with key democracies like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and — above all — Mexico. His administration will be guided by the principles of respect for sovereignty, private initiative, multilateral action, free politics and markets, the rule of law, and regard for the variety of peoples and cultures that make up the Western Hemisphere.
With Mexico, whose historic recent election we salute, the United States should continue to reduce barriers to trade and investment, including the implementation of existing commitments where the current administration has backtracked. Yet a true North American community should have a wider agenda that also includes the development of civil society. Our two countries can share ideas for improving education and public services on both sides of the border and using the federal system in both countries to promote governmental cooperation between honest officials who are close to their people.
A new Republican government committed to NAFTA can enlarge it into a vision for hemispheric free trade, drawing nations closer in business, common commercial standards, dispute resolution, and education. Republicans do not want to create new trading blocs to battle rivals. They mean to encourage general political and economic reform, starting with the American neighborhood.
In Cuba, Fidel Castro continues to impose communist economic controls and absolute political repression of 11 million Cubans. His regime harasses and jails dissidents, restricts economic activity, and forces Cubans into the sea in a desperate bid for freedom. He gives refuge to fugitives from American justice, hosts a sophisticated Russian espionage facility that intercepts U.S. government and private communications, and has ordered his air force to shoot down two unarmed U.S. civilian airplanes thereby killing American citizens.
U.S. policy toward Cuba should be based upon sound, clear principles. Our economic and political relations will change when the Cuban regime frees all prisoners of conscience, legalizes peaceful protest, allows opposition political activity, permits free expression, and commits to democratic elections. This policy will be strengthened by active American support for Cuban dissidents. Under no circumstances should Republicans support any subsidy of Castro’s Cuba or any other terrorist state.
Republicans also support a continued effort to promote freedom and democracy by communicating objective and uncensored news and information to the Cuban people via U.S. broadcasts to the captive island. Finally, Republicans believe that the United States should adhere to the principles established by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which recognizes the rights of Cuban refugees fleeing communist tyranny.
Across the Pacific
As in every region of the world, America’s foreign policy in Asia starts with its allies: Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Our allies are critical in building and expanding peace, security, democracy, and prosperity in East Asia joined by long-standing American friends like Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, and New Zealand.
Republican priorities in the next administration will be clear. We will strengthen our alliance with Japan. We will help to deter aggression on the Korean peninsula. We will counter the regional proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and deploy, in cooperation with our allies, effective theater missile defenses. We will promote peace in the Taiwan Strait. We will reconstitute our relations with the nations of Southeast Asia. We will obtain the fullest possible accounting for our POW/MIAs from the Pacific wars. And we will promote democracy, open markets, and human rights for the betterment of the people of Asia and the United States.
Japan is a key partner of the United States’ and the U.S.-Japan alliance is an important foundation of peace, stability, security, and prosperity in Asia. America supports an economically vibrant and open Japan that can serve as engine of expanding prosperity and trade in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Republic of Korea is a valued democratic ally of the United States. North Korea, on the other hand, lies outside of the international system. Americans have shed their blood to stop North Korean aggression before. Fifty years after the outbreak of the Korean War, Republicans remember this “forgotten war.” Americans should honor the sacrifices of the past and remain prepared to resist aggression today. Policies to protect the peace on the Korean peninsula will be developed in concert with America’s allies, starting with South Korea and Japan. What must be clear is an American policy of decisive resolve. The United States will stand by its commitments and will take all necessary measures to thwart, deter, and defend itself and its allies against attack, including enemy use of weapons of mass destruction.
After fighting together in both world wars, the United States forged a formal alliance with Australia that has stood the test of fire in the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf conflicts. American partnership with Australia is just as relevant to the challenges of Asia’s future, as exemplified by Australia’s leadership in the East Timor crisis.
American ties to the Philippines have been close for more than a hundred years. We Republicans have supported the victory of Filipino democracy and cherish our continuing friendship with this great nation and its people who have been by our side in war as in peace.
America’s key challenge in Asia is the People’s Republic of China. China is not a free society. The Chinese government represses political expression at home and unsettles neighbors abroad. It stifles freedom of religion and proliferates weapons of mass destruction.
Yet China is a country in transition, all the more reason for the policies of the United States to be firm and steady. America will welcome the advent of a free and prosperous China. Conflict is not inevitable, and the United States offers no threat to China. Republicans support China’s accession into the World Trade Organization, but this will not be a substitute for, or lessen the resolve of, our pursuit of improved human rights and an end to proliferation of dangerous technologies by China.
China is a strategic competitor of the United States, not a strategic partner. We will deal with China without ill will — but also without illusions. A new Republican government will understand the importance of China but not place China at the center of its Asia policy.
A Republican president will honor our promises to the people of Taiwan, a longstanding friend of the United States and a genuine democracy. Only months ago the people of Taiwan chose a new president in free and fair elections. Taiwan deserves America’s strong support, including the timely sale of defensive arms to enhance Taiwan’s security.
In recognition of its growing importance in the global economy, we support Taiwan’s accession to the World Trade Organization, as well as its participation in the World Health Organization and other multilateral institutions.
America has acknowledged the view that there is one China. Our policy is based on the principle that there must be no use of force by China against Taiwan. We deny the right of Beijing to impose its rule on the free Taiwanese people. All issues regarding Taiwan’s future must be resolved peacefully and must be agreeable to the people of Taiwan. If China violates these principles and attacks Taiwan, then the United States will respond appropriately in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act. America will help Taiwan defend itself.
This country’s relations with Vietnam are still overshadowed by two grave concerns. The first is uncertainty concerning the Americans who became prisoners of war or were missing in action. A Republican president will accelerate efforts in every honorable way to obtain the fullest possible accounting for those still missing and for the repatriation of the remains of those who died in the cause of freedom. The second is continued retribution by the government of Vietnam against its ethnic minorities and others who fought alongside our forces there. The United States owes those individuals a debt of honor and will not be blind to their suffering.
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