CIAO DATE: 10/04

What is Sovereignty? The Cases of Taiwan and Micronesia

Abstract

The title of my contribution to this discussion raises a point that is easy to overlook in discussions relating to the legal status of the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan. The range of options across the Strait is not confined, as the title of this conference suggests, to the reunification of China or Taiwan's independence, although either of these is obviously a possibility. A more likely option, in my judgment, is some future status for the ROC which involves neither incorporation into the People's Republic of China nor the challenging step of a declaration of “independence” as the Republic of Taiwan. This third option embraces a multiplicity of status shadings involving a continuing evolution of the ROC's current status of de facto independence. It is this option that I would like to address.

Nothing more vividly exposes Taiwan's anomalous international situation than the striking contrast of its present unique non--status with that of three small new nations, formerly portions of the U.S.--administered U.N. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, whose status arose out of negotiations with the United States. These are the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. A so--called Compact of Free Association negotiated between 1977 and 1981 and implemented as to Micronesia and the Marshall Islands in 1986 terminated their status as wards of the international community and defined a new status of free association with the United States. The Compact of Free Association recognizes that the three freely associated states (FAS) "have and retain their sovereignty and their sovereign right of self--determination" and confirms that "approval of the entry of their respective Governments into this Compact of Free Association constitutes an exercise of their sovereign right to selfdetermination."

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