Response to
Newsweek story “TAIWAN Against the Wall”
by Richard W. Hartzell
To:
Your story “TAIWAN Against the Wall”discusses Taiwan's political deadlock, but fails to note the obvious solution, which would be an "accurate determination of Taiwan's international legal position." That the Republic of China on Taiwan is a "government-in-exile" has been noted by many researchers. However, none have grasped the realitythat the territory of " Formosa and the Pescadores" is actually an insular area of the United States. The earliest delineation of US insular areas was by the Supreme Court after the Spanish American War, for Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines , and Cuba. The United States was the "conquerer," hence (in the post-Napoleonic era) the United States is "the occupying power." Beginning in 1898, thethree fundamental criteria for therecognitionof a type of US insular area are -- conquest by US military forces,the US as "the (principal) occupying power,"and territorial cession in the peace treaty. (The issue of whether there is a "recipient" for the territorial cession in the peace treaty is a separate consideration.) No one researching the Taiwan status issue studies the relationship between territorial cession, military law, and military government, hence they fail to see this simple formulation. As a result, Taiwan cannot do such simple things as joining the World Health Organization, and there is no consensus over the direction for Taiwan's future development.
Richard W. Hartzell
1st Fl., No. 158 Xing Yun Street, Nei Hu District, Taipei, TAIWAN
October 26, 2005
office: 2792-9377
US citizen, born in 1951
Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass, class of '69
Wharton School, Univ. of Penn., class of '74
website: http://www.taiwanbasic.com/notes/data.htm
Resume upon request.
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Regarding your article --
TAIWAN Against the Wall, page 5, NEWSWEEK, October 24, 2005 ......
Iboughtmy copy of NEWSWEEK in Taiwan.