A Change is Gonna Come (originally aired December 1, 2004)
President Bartlet accepts a flag on behalf of the Taiwanese independence movement, raising questions about whether he is considering a change to U.S. policy regarding China and Taiwan (1). Bartlet also participates in a photo opportunity concerning the letter by which he invoked the Twenty-Fifth Amendment's procedures for stepping down temporarily from office (2), a photo opportunity that becomes a turf war between two potential Democratic presidential candidates, Vice President Bob Russell and Pennsylvania Governor Eric Baker. Former Vice-President Hoynes, who stepped down in season four and who announced he was writing a book in season five, asks Josh to run his campaign. Bartlet attends a ceremony honoring the late soul singer Sam Cooke (1931-64) and featuring a song of his that was issued posthumously, "A Change is Gonna Come," and admits to his wife that he is suffering health problems.
(back to top)
U.S. Policy towards China and Taiwan (last updated December 1, 2004) (back to top)
Long-standing U.S. policy recognizes one China - which is not Taiwan - while also supporting Taiwan's peaceful existence. Under this policy, the United States recognizes "one China" and does not support Taiwan's membership in any organizations in which statehood is a requirement, such as the United Nations, but does support its membership in other organizations for such statehood is not required, such as the Asian Development Bank.
This policy is based on three joint communiqués issued in the 1970s and early 1980s and by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979. U.S. policy towards China in the 1990s was also marked by a debate about whether the United States should limit trade with China because of its human-rights record; China was granted permanent normal trading status in December 2001 after it joined the World Trade Organization.
Secretary of State Colin Powell recently reiterated the one-China policy during a trip to China in October 2004.
"We have made it very clear to the authorities in Taiwan, to President Chen Shui-bian, that we do not support independence for Taiwan," he said in an October 25, 2004 interview (transcript on-line here). "Our One-China Policy, resting on the Three Communiqués and the Taiwan Relations Act, has served all of the parties quite well for a long period of time, and we would not support anything that would change that approach … There is no doubt by either Chen Shui-bian's mind or any other Taiwanese leader's mind that that is a firm US policy that is not going to change."
In the first joint communiqué, the United States acknowledged the existence of one China, that Taiwan was part of China, and that the United States' "ultimate objective" was the "withdrawal of all US forces and military installations from Taiwan." This communiqué resulted from President Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972.
In the second communiqué, issued on January 1, 1979, the US and China announced the establishment of formal diplomatic relations, and the US formally recognized the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China. The US stopped official relations with Taiwan but promised to maintain various unofficial relations with Taiwan (for example, the United States does not have an embassy in Taiwan but works through a private organization, the American Institute in Taiwan).
The third communiqué was signed in 1982 in a response to the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, which committed the United States to helping with Taiwan's security, including providing Taiwan with "arms of a defensive character." This caused tensions between the United States and China. In this communiqué, the United States declared it would not increase arms sales to Taiwan beyond the levels since 1979, and that it intended to gradually reduce arms sales "over a period of time to a final resolution." The conflict between these two statements has been a source of tension several times.
Despite growing economic ties between China and Taiwan, China's claims of right to Taiwan continue to be a source of tension in East Asia and in Sino-US relations. Crises in the 1950s threatened to escalate into nuclear war and have again risen in the 1990s, most dramatically when China conducted military exercises in the Taiwan Strait in 1995 and 1996, both times provoking a United States response to help prevent the situation from escalating.
China ruled the island of Taiwan from 1680 to 1895, when it ceded the island to Japan as a result of the first Sino-Japanese war. Japan then ruled the island as a colony for 50 years, and the island finally reverted to Chinese rule in 1945 following World War II. However, when a long-running civil war between Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese (KMT) government and the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong ended in Mao's favor in 1949, about two million refugees fled to Taiwan and established a government in exile there.
Ever since, the People's Republic of China has stated that it views Taiwan as a part of China and that it does not rule out any means of returning the island to Chinese rule. China has also built up its forces near Taiwan, especially missiles that could reach the island. Taiwan's leaders, on the other hand, have claimed independence and have built up military forces of their own, focusing on advanced technology rather than trying to match China's vast numerical superiority. In recent years, peoples in China and Taiwan have built up economic ties, but tensions still continue, especially as China itself undergoes changes in leadership and tensions between its military and economic interests.
The United States initially stayed out of the China-Taiwan conflict, but after the Korean conflict broke out in mid-1940, President Harry S Truman declared the "neutralization" of the strait and sent the Seventh Fleet to the Straits to prevent either side from attacking. President Dwight Eisenhower then ended this blockade in early 1953.
Two crises over Taiwan then unfolded in the 1950s, both times threatening to escalate into nuclear strikes. The first occurred from 1954 to 1955, when Beijing conducted an artillery bombardment of Quemoy and Matsu, areas where Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek had built up forces to attack the mainland; the situation escalated when Beijing sentenced 13 US airmen shot down over China in the Korean War to long jail terms. The United States signed a mutual defense treaty with Taiwan in December 1954 and Eisenhower administration officials even announced they were considering using nuclear strikes to end the crisis. The crisis was finally resolved gradually when Beijing stopped shelling in May 1955 and then released the captured airmen in August.
Three years later, from August to October 1958, Beijing resumed the artillery bombardment of Quemoy and Matsu. The Eisenhower administration responded forcefully, deploying massive naval forces to the Straits and making plans for nuclear strikes on the mainland. Even though the Soviet Union promised to view any US attack on mainland China as an attack on the Soviet Union, Beijing announced it would suspend bombardment and arrange a conclusion to the crisis.
Raised tensions between China and the United States over Taiwan emerged in June 1995. That month, the United States allowed Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui to visit his alma mater, Cornell University, for what was said to be a "private" visit. During his stay, Lee took advantage of the media attention, referring to the "Republic of China on Taiwan." Beijing responded to the visit by withdrawing its ambassador from Washington.
Soon after, in July 1995 and again in August, the conflict took on a military air when Beijing conducted missile tests about 90 miles northeast of Taipei. Beijing's army then held large naval and amphibious blockage exercises off Dongshan Island, near Taiwan, in November 1995, shortly before Taiwan's parliamentary elections. The United States responded to these exercises by sending the USS Nimitz battle group in December 1995 through the Taiwan Strait, the first carrier to make that passage since 1979. Beijing called the action potentially hostile.
The crisis continued until March 1996. That month, Beijing announced plans to conduct more live-fire military exercises in March 1996, shortly before Taiwan's presidential election. The United States responded by sending the USS Independence and Nimitz battle groups to Taiwan. Beijing's actions seemed designed to limit Taiwan's behavior, not to invade or attack the island, and, in any case, the situation resolved without further escalation. In any case, President Lee Teng-hui was re-elected by a large margin shortly after the crisis, probably the exact opposite of what Beijing intended via its actions.
The issue continues to be
Taiwan itself was under martial law from the 1940s until 1987 and continued to be ruled by the Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalist Party) for many years after. In March 2000, an opposition candidate, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party, won the presidential election for the first time, and Taiwan saw its first peaceful transfer of office.
Sources: The State Department's country background note on Taiwan is available via its site here. The Federation of American Scientists provides background information on the Taiwan Straits situation and the three crises there here. The CIA World Factbook entries are available on-line for China and for Taiwan.
Executive Authority and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment (last updated September 25, 2003) (back to top)
President Bartlet was the first president to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment's procedures for handling a temporary situation where the president's judgment or abilities might be impaired. Under the amendment's third section, if the president is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office," he can voluntarily step down temporarily and allow the vice president to assume the powers and duties of the office until he transmits another written declaration to the contrary.
Here is the full text of the third section of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment :
|
Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives has written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President
|
The Twenty-Fifth Amendment was created in the wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, adopted by Congress in 1964, and finally ratified by the states in 1967, and it dictates how executive power is transferred when the chief executive is "unable to discharge" his duties. The first two sections clarify the succession from president to vice-president, and were used in the 1970s when President Richard Nixon filled Spiro Agnew's vacancy with Gerald Ford in 1970, and when Ford then replaced Nixon as President in 1974 and nominated Nelson Rockefeller as his own vice-president.
The Third Section and Ronald Reagan
Under the third section, the president can voluntarily transmit a "written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office," and until he transmits another written declaration to the contrary, the vice president serves as acting president with full powers and duties. This section has never been formally invoked, despite two known opportunities -- both during the Reagan presidency -- in which it arguably should have been.
The first occasion was the March 1981 assassination attempt in which Reagan was seriously wounded. Reagan did not sign a written declaration and so arguably retained the reins of power even during the 12 hours while he was anesthesia and in surgery. Even Reagan's own cabinet was confused about who held the powers and duties of the presidency, with Secretary of State Alexander Haig incorrectly declaring that he was "in control" and misquoting the Constitution.
The second was in July 1985, when Reagan underwent colon surgery, "during which time I will be briefly and temporarily incapable of discharging the constitutional powers and duties of the office of the President of the United States." Reagan specifically stated that he did not believe the Twenty-fifth Amendment to apply to "such brief and temporary periods of incapacity" like this one but that it was "my intention and direction" that Vice President George Bush discharge presidential powers upon the administration of anesthesia. Bush served as acting president for only eight hours, but many have questioned whether Reagan's letter constitutionally did transfer even temporary power and whether there was anyone legally holding the powers and duties of the presidency for that period.
The Fourth Section
The fourth section, which has never been invoked, empowers the Vice-President and a majority of the Cabinet to remove a president who does not or cannot recognize his inability to serve. President James A. Garfield was in a coma for 80 days after being shot by an assassin in 1881, and President Woodrow Wilson was invalid for much of his last term as president, and the fourth section provides a procedure for the Vice-President to step up in such cases.
Nevertheless, the amendment is not limited by its wording to such situations and thus could apply to a situation such as this one (or even to the situation depicted in the second season of Fox's 24). Given the precedent set by impeachment procedures, the United States Supreme Court would probably stay out of any court battle over the amendment's wording and simply defer to whatever interpretation is applied by the president and the vice president; the United States Supreme Court deferred in this way to however Congress defines the "high crimes and misdemeanors" involved in an impeachment hearing (for more on impeachment, go here).
If the president is able to challenge the decision and does so, he resumes power, but the Vice-President can re-affirm his declaration that the president is unable to serve and resume power temporarily. The President will ultimately resume power unless Congress decides by a 2/3 vote of both houses that the president is unable to serve or if sufficient time has passed without Congress making such a decision.
Source: Findlaw's annotation on the Twenty-Fifth Amendment is on-line here. Kenneth Crispell and Carlos Gomez, Hidden Illness in the White House (Duke University Press, 1988).
|
|
|
Home / Calendar
The West Wing
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
The Colbert Report
Saturday Night Live
Commander in Chief
Law & Order
*
Issues
Resources
Site FAQ
Search via Google
Ripped from the Headlines?
West Wing: Santos discusses a lawsuit about intelligent design
West Wing: Electoral map as of the 10/9 episode; Santos needs to catch up big-time
SNL: The Miers nomination
South Park: Inspired by Katrina
Boston Legal: End to assault-weapons ban
Daily Show: A 2004 study found that 21 percent of young people regularly get their campaign news from comedy shows like the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live. So, some footnotes.
NOTE: All photos are copyright their respective owners.
| |
