TAIWAN:
Stumbling block in Sino-American relations
"The Kuomintang re-
gime, started by t he
late Chiang Kai-shek,
is still seeking to man-
By PAUL TIK LIN
The following is the first of a two-part discussion of the
immediate and long-range prospects of Taiwan and the U.S.
role in the island's prolonged resistance to assimilation by
the People's Republic of China.
MORE THAN THREE YEARS have elapsed since Premier
Chou En-lai and former President Richard Nixon signed
the historic U.S.-China Joint Communique in Shanghai in
1972. Since then, significant progress has been made in people-
to-people contacts and in trade. But both the American and
Chinese public are still waiting for the fulfillment of the
Shanghai Communique's promise of a complete normalization
of relations between the two countries. Indeed, few other
foreign policy goals in current U.S. electoral politics poten-
tially enlist such a high degree of support among Americans.
This is because only diplomatic relations can fully develop
mutually beneficial contacts. Thus many questions have been
raised as to why more rapid progress toward normalization
has not been made during the past few years.
The crux of the problem lies in the Taiwan issue, as it
has for a quarter-century since the United States dispatched
troops to the Chinese island in mid-1950 to block China's
consummation of its civil war.
IN THE SHANGHAI COMMUNIQUE, the Unted States
recognized that "all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan
Strait maintain that there is but one China and that Taiwan
is a part of China. The United States Government does not
challenge that position," and affirmed the "ultimate objective
of the withdrawal of all U.S. forces and military installations
from Taiwan." The tacit but unavoidable implication was
that, since the Communique was now signed with the People's
Republic of' China, the United States would move toward
recognizing it as the one China, of which Taiwan is a part.
In signing, the U.S. in effect reverted to the unequivocal
position it took on the status of Taiwan in early 1950. At
that time, the State Departmen declared its official acknowl-
edgment that Taiwan, "stolen from the Chinese" by Japan
-in the words of the 1943 Cairo Declaration-had been re-
stored to China and had again become a Chinese province.
Secretary of State Dean Acheson, under instructions from
President Truman, even took pains to state on January 5
of that year that the U.S. position was not a question of
legal quibbles, but had to do with "maintaining in the world
the belief that when the U.S. takes a position it sticks to
that position and does not change by reason of transitory
expediency or advantagefon its part." Six months later, how-
ever, the U.S. government adandoned its professed hands-off
policy toward the Chinese civil war (still being waged even
after the October 1, 1949, founding of the People's Republic)
and proclaimed the corrupt, overthrown Chiang regime as the
"free world's" champion in Asia.
Tomorrow: Toward one China
AFTER THE SIGNING OF THE 1972 Shanghai Com-
munique, it was widely expected that the United States would
steadily disengage itself from Taiwan and move toward full
diplomatic relations with the People's Republic. But three
years later, it has made only one token gesture in this direc-
tion - a small withdrawal of troops in June 1975.
In every other respect, far from curtailing and terminating
its intervention in Taiwan, American military, economic, and
diplomatic ties with the island have actually been expanded.
* Since 1973, through the use of long-term, low-interest
credits, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan have nearly doubled,
going from $45.2 million two years ago to $80 million for
this fiscal year. Taiwan has also purchased several American
submarines, destroyers, and fleet support ships.
* The American government has also authorized a $200
million military credit arrangement for the Northrop Corpora-
tion to build 100 FS-E jet fighters on Taiwan by 1978. These
single-seat jets are designed to face the military aircraft of
the People's Republic. The withdrawal of the few American
FS-E's which were until recently stationed on Taiwan has
been more than offset by this move.
* American trade with Taiwan has increased from $1.5
billion in 1971, shortly before Nixon's China visit, to $3.7 bil-
lion last year. In contrast, trade between the United States
and the People's Republic last year reached a little over
$900 million.
* American investment on Taiwan has expanded, with
major new projects by such corporations as Ford Motor
and Union Carbide. The Export-Import Bank recently gave
the island a loan for the construction of two nuclear power
plants, and several American companies are exploring for
oil in the Taiwan Straits.
* A number of American banks have opened new branches
on Taiwan.
9 Since the signing of the Shanghai Communique, the
United States has also allowed the Chiang regime to set up
five new consulates in Atlanta, Portland, Kansas City, Guam,
and American Samoa.
-OR WHAT PURPOSE HAVE THESE CONSULATES been
added and the American presence on Taiwan increased?
Has Washington embarked on another attempt to set up
a "two Chinas" or a "one Chine, one Taiwan" situation?
Is the U.S. "stake" in Taiwan being hastily built up to
insure the survival of the Chiang regime and justify further
U.S. intervention?
Does the U.S. government in fact regard the Shanghai
Communique, with its provisions for an American disengage-
ment from Taiwan, as just another piece of paper?
1 paate
U. S. policy
along lines which have
no bearing on Ameri-
ca 'scurrent interests
in East Asia."
Chiang Kai-shek
Today, the situation in Asia has changed dramatically
with the U.S. withdrawal from Indochina-a withdrawal mili-
tarily made necessary by the successful resistance of the Viet-
namese and Cambodian peoples, and politically made possible
by the China-U.S. normalization talks. The Chiang regime,
however, is still desperately seeking to manipulate U.S. policy
along dangerously anti-China lines which no longer have any
bearing on America's misread historical interests, let alone
her current interests in East Asia.
How much can the United States conceivably gain even
in the, short run by continuing to sustain the interests of an
"ally" which was originally created two decades ago to serve
the separate, selfish advantage of each?
I
Paul T. K. Lin is director of the Centre for East Asian
Studies at McGill University in Montreal. Reprinted from "New
China", the magazine of the U.S.-China Peoples Friendship
Committee, by permission of the author.
myI a t txt atug
Eighty-Six Years of Editorial Freedom
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104
UFW farmworkers: Up from vagrancy
Tuesday, November 25, 1975
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Join, support rent strike
TENANTS ARE PEOPLE, too. They
laugh and cry, muse and mope,
and do all the other quaint things as-
cribed to the human condition. In
fact, most of our best friends are
tenants.
And, it's a source of endless indig-
nation to see them living the lives of
lab animals, prisoners at the mercy
of local landlords.
TODAY'S STAFF:
News: Gordon Atcheson, Barb Cornell,
Elaine Fletcher, Jim Garfinkel, Joy
Levin, Rob Meachum, Sara Rimer,
Jim Tobin
Editorial Page: Marc Basson, Paul
Haskins, Ted Lambert, Tom Stevens
Arts Page: David Blomquist
Photo Technician: Pauline Lubens
Residents of this fair town, like
their counterparts in college towns
across the land, are so busy looking
elsewhere for sources of oppression
theat they're slow in recogrizing lo-
cally-based opportunists even when
hit- in the face by them.
The landlords of Ann Arbor have
made it their business to nurture a
tradition of ethical turpituide and
dubious legality in, their dealings
with the tenants.
The Ann Arbor Tenants Union and
friends are making it their business
to fight back in the landlords' own
language - dollars and cents.
JOIN THE RENT STRIKE if you're a
Trony tenant. Support it if you're
not. We've no place to go but up.
By BOB BARBER
CINGLE MEN WITHOUT fam-
ilies, shifting from place to
place following the harvests,
condemned to a perpetual life
as low - paid migratory work-
ers - this is the classic image
of farmworkers from Florida to
California.
Now in California, farm la-
borers have been offered dia-
metrically opposed paths to al-
tering their lot in life, the pro-
mise of higher wages through
the muscle of the world's big-
gest union, the Teamsters, or
the struggle to break out of the
migratory cycle and become
workers with stable jobs, homes
and communities, led by the
UFW.
This is the real choice behind
the bitter Teamster-UFW fight
for the allegiance of the farm-
workers, and the significance- of
the startling two-to-one lead of
the UFW over the Teamsters in
secret ballot elections held all
across the state.
Described by the press only
last yearas visionary buthope-
lessly inept, the UFW over the
years has proven itself the only
union able to build a new way
of life for farmworkers, based
on politically organized com-
munities.
AT THE HEART of the Team-
ster-UFW fight lie two systems
of work assignments that shape
the kind of life the farmworker
leads. The Teamsters' method is
to preserve the old system of
labor contractors, the lone job
boss gathering up workers and
moving from field to field where
growers want work, with the
Teamsters supplying union of-
ficials to hammer out more
secure and profitable work.
The UFW, however, has intro-
duced the hiring hall, the clas-
sic mechanism of a stable trade
union made, up of permanent
workers. The hiring hall stays
in one place, as do most of the
workers. It makes work as-
signments according to growers'
needs, but makes sure its mem-
bers get some work, with prior-
ities set by seniority. While
there is no way it can over-
come the seasonal fluctuations
of farm work, the hall pro-
vides both residents of the area
and migrants guaranteed work.
THE GROWERS LIKE the
Teamster system because it,
keeps workers .migrating, free-.
ing the ranch owners from hav-
ing to deal with them during
the off season. More import-
ant, it leaves them total con-
trol over access to jobs. The
UFW hiring hall, on the other
hand, gives the farmworkers a
chance t oenter the ranks of the
down with families, send their
children to school, and partici-
pate in larger community af-
fairs.
What the growers dislike even
more is that UFW hiring halls
are not run by union bureau-
crats sent down from the cen-
tral office, but by ranch com-
mittees elected by the workers
themselves. If a dispute arise,
a grower can't run to Chavez
to negotiate but has to deal with
the ranch committee of his own
workers.
To the UFW, worker partici-
pation and union democracy
have always been basic princi-
ples. But over the years, these
principles have also proven to
be the- practical keys to their
success. For there are what
have given an otherwise migra-
tory and competitive work force
a permanent stake in the union
as an organization and the com-
munities of farmworkers grow-
ing up around it.
WHAT HAS EMERGED from
this commitment is La Causa,
not just a union movement but
a political struggle to build bet-
ter lives.
The political fibre of the un-
ion is strengthened by the fact
that workers can levy fines on
their co-workers for failure to
help in boycott and picketing.
work aimed at winning ,con-
tracts at other ranches.
All are drawn into year round
political life where they live
and work. And when boycotts or
election contests are mounted,
hundreds of UFW members
temporarily leave their homes
to campaign in new communi-
ties.
IT IS THIS political nature
of the UFW which the Team-
sters hit hardest at in the elec-
tions, putting themselves forth
as a no-nonsense union which
would deliver the goods without
demanding involvement by
workers on the ranches.
"Protect yourself from the
blackbird vulture," said one
Teamster leaflet, referring to
the UFW's black eagle symbol.
"He wants to swoop in and
carry you away in his dirty
claws to a life of bondages,
marches, fines and abuse at his
dictatorial dispatch hall. Get
yourself the best on-the-job in-
surance possible, get\the Team-
sters working for you."
The Teamsters, who endorse
the free enterprise, individual-
ist nature of seasonal farm
work, say the UFW's politics
is an impediment for workers
who want to travel fast from
job to job and make a lot Hof
money. Their message has had
appeal to those workers with-
out families who prefer to fend.
for themselves.
MANY YOUNG workers, for
example, want to snap up jobs,
wherever they appear and make
as much money as possible
which is more difficult under
the hiring hall system.' They
are often willing to work hard
for lower wages (retaking more
money on a piece rate) and un-
dercut those other workers who
see the advantage of working
slower for health reasons: farm
work in back breaking.
For this reason, the Team-
sters did well with young Fili-
pino farmworkers in Delano
and Santa Maria.
But as the greater than two-
to-one vote for the UFW over
the Teamsters suggests, more
and more farmworkers are will-
ing to put aside the short-run
bread - ind - butter gains pro-
mised by the Teamsters in fa-
vor of the UFW's tougher road
of political involvement and
mobilization. In these times of
economic crisis, it is 'a lessop
not likely to be lost in the in-
dustrial sector, either on man-
agement, unions or workers.
Bob Barber is a freelance re-
porter who has covered UFW
activities for various publicas-
tions. Copyright Pacific News
Service, 1975.
regular work force,
to settle
Mac's juggernaut drolls on
By ALAN KETTLER
A FRIEND ONCE REMARKED, "At Mc-
Donald's, you get more paner than food."
"A just statement," I replied, as visions
of pink plastic Big Mac boxes flashed in
my head. Many were the times when a
meal at McDonald's ended by the bury-
ing of our table with a pile of bags, cups,
and wrappers.
With these thoughts in mind, I visited
the Maynard St. restaurant recently one
noon. The rather pleasant exterior was un-
like any I had seen, so I entered, hoping
orders, 15 billion large drinks, and 15 billion
small bags accompanied that meat. Multi-
plying each of these figures by the gram
weight''of each container, and adding the
products, I found at least a rough estimate
of McDonald's paper usage.
ACCORDING TO MY ESTIMATE, these
figures. indicated the }jsage of 800 million
pounds of paper. The weight of '43 billion
hamburger wrappers would equal that total
weight. Laid out in a rectangle, those wrap-
pers would cover 3,800 square miles. Laid
end to end, those wrappers would stretch
almost a third of the way to the sun,
or 135 times to the moon, or 1080 times
around the equator.
The carnival-like atmosphere in which
McDonald's resources for its food distribu-
tion is folly. As a result of its consumptive
mania, swaths of forest are, clear - cut.
hauled, and manufactured into a product
whose life lasts several minutes. Mean-
while, the forest soils wash away, water-
ways are silted and the land loses its
basis of productivity to our oceanic dumps.
Animal populations are killed, at the
same time that the rate of global species
extinction accelerates quickly. The great
water-absorbing powers of the forest are
lost, rainwater runs off quickly, causing
costly man-made fiascos like the flood-
ing of the Mississippi River.
THE PURSUIT OF PROFIT and the
great disregard of resource considerations
in economic decision making evident in
McDonald's is characteristic of the world
economy. This country is so addicted to
its lavish energy use (McDonald's is by
far one of the most energy intensive
ways of deeding people) that it threatens
to occupy mid-East olfields, ravages the
land to seek coal, and denies poor coun-
tries the opportunity to avert oncoming
mass famine.
The illusionary need created in part by
McDonald's for physical, living, and energy
resources perpetuates the plundering of
the planet. To meet these illusory needs,
we pursue the illusions of viable man-
made ecosystems and safe nuclear power,
among others.
Fa ntasy man
floats in to
rip Bucks
By GORDON ATCHESON
THE CHEAP APRICOT BRANDY burned as it
went down. One more big swallow and it would
be gone. But oh, how it burned. Even more than the
numbers on the score board: time - 2:00, Michigan
-14, Ohio State - 21.
Nothing left to do but empty the bottle. I sput-
tered as the sweet stuff blazed a trail to my stom-
ach.
Walking from the stadium, I began to notice
how out of focus the rest of the world seemed. And
I'm pretty sure it wasn't just the emotional high of
the moment. Besides, we lost.
Having negotiated the short journey from the
stadium and the locked door to my apartment, I
collapsed on the bed in a skid-row stupor which
lacked only a case of the DT's for that true Bowery
flavor.
I felt remarkably better when I awoke the next
morning. So I got up, took off my shoes, and put on
my grey jogging togs. Running toward the stadium,
I spied a tattered "Fuck the Bucks" sign and an-
other that in some way which I don't remember at-
tacked Woody Hayes' masculinity.
THE GROUND WAS littered with broken and
empty bottles that had once contained spirits that
couldn't have cost must more than my bathtub
brandy. Bits of limp maize and blue crepe paper
had been tossed every which way by the wind.
I began to whistle "Hail to the Victors" at a
funeral march pace - quietly so no one would
hear me, even though I knew I was the only soul
around.
But suddenly, as I drew close to the stadium, I
heard what sounded like a huge groan just like the
one 105,000 fans let out when Pete Johnson crashed
into the end zone the day before.
* * *
I pulled on my helmet, snapped the chin strap
under my jaw, and trotted over to Coach Schem-
bechler. That's what we call him - either that or
just plain Coach, but never, never Bo.
We both knew the situation and what had to be
done. He slapped me on the ass and said "Go get
'em, Atcheson!'"
In response, I turned toward him slightly as I
ran onto the field and raised a single, clenched fist.
THE ANNOUNCER ALERTED the crowd to the
substitution, but none of the audience could find
number 98.6 in the program. Just for the record,
I'm a senior tailback from Cortland, New York
who stands 5'11" and weighs 160 lbs, including the
brandy.
I knelt in the huddle with just over a minute and
half to play and about 75 yards between us and the
Ohio State goal line. The ten faces around me were
grim, resigned, battered. Ricky. Leach looked a bit
really on . . . I understood.
nervous, after all he's only 18- and the pressure was
"Red, swing right, criss-cross, on two," I barked
out the play with authority. We broke from the hud-
dle with a united "Let's go."
Leach hunched over the center. "Hut, one, Hut,
two," came the cadence. Hhen everybody was in
motion.
The line blew straight out, Leach turned and
pitched to me. I took the ball in stride and gazed
. pfield. The scene unfolded in slow motion - like
something from a Sam Peckinpah movie.
DEFTLY I CUT .off tackle, as the scarlet and
gray hoarde converged. I pivoted back against the
flow, fending off one pursuer with a stiff-arm to the
heart. Another got an arm around my thigh but
couldn't hang on.
With a sudden burst of speed, I moved to the
sideline leaving but a single defender between me
and my objective. I gave a head and shoulder fake
to the outside and veered back. He spun to follow
hut coidn't keep his footing and day sprawled on
the turf.
As I crossed the 10-vard line, I raised the ball
See DREAMS, Page 7
Gordon Atcheson is Co-editor-in-chief of The
Daily.
,
that McDonald's also had wised up and
started using plates and glasses like any
normal restaurant. Alas, an armada of
trash bins stood confronting the entrance.
A few side glances reaffirmed my view
of McDonald's as a most prolific cornucopia
of blatant waste.
AS IN THE PAST, diners sat amidst
their little heaps of paper. Ignorant chil-
dren pawed their way with little hands for
tasty, barren food amidst relative mountains
of rubbish. In order to move its food across
the floor of .its building from the cashier
to tables several steps away, the McDon-
ald's Corporation finds it ludicrously neces-
sary to emboss the foods it mass produces
within layers of cups, tops, wrappers, plas-
tics, and cardboard boxes.
A lot of junk flowed across the stain-
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