PEACE AND SECURITY IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM.

• Author: Harland, Bryce
• Position: Taiwan-China problem - Brief Article

Bryce Harland comments on the most dangerous situation in the Asia-Pacific region -- the Taiwan-China problem.

I believe in peace. The first words of the UN Charter set the goal for all members -- `to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war'. The highest duty of a diplomat, I have always felt, is to do whatever he can to help avoid war, with all the suffering and destruction it involves. The worst of all wars would be nuclear war: preventing nuclear war is the paramount goal of foreign policy.

It follows that we must go on working to rid the world of nuclear weapons. One way to approach this goal is to stop the testing of such weapons. New Zealand played a leading part in the campaign for a Comprehensive Test Ban for over 20 years. We went on working for it, in my time at the United Nations, even when the United States strongly opposed the resolutions we put forward year after year. It was a great achievement to get the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty signed, and to get it ratified by some of the nuclear weapon states. And it was a great set-back when the US Senate voted against ratification. But that was not the end of the road. With many like-minded countries, New Zealand is still working for full ratification of the treaty, and we will presumably continue to do so.

But wars are not made by weapons alone: they are made by people, and by governments. To prevent nuclear war we need to work towards the abolition of nuclear weapons. We also need to work towards resolving the specific conflicts of interest that could lead to nuclear war. I want to talk about the only issue in the Asia-Pacific region which could give rise to such a war, in the not-too-distant future.

The most dangerous situation on our side of the world -- perhaps now even in the world at large -- is the Taiwan Strait. Chinese-speaking people attach the highest importance to the unity of China. The Nationalists strove for it as long as they had the power: the Communists are no less committed to the goal. They remember that disunity can lead to chaos, and cost millions of lives.

In order to achieve unity, Beijing is offering Taiwan even more generous terms than those it has given Hong Kong -- under which terms Hong Kong still thrives. In the case of Taiwan, the people of the island would not only be guaranteed continuation of the present economic and social system for a long period: Taiwan would also continue to have its own armed forces. So far the elected authorities...