Your editorial “Xi Gives Trump a Taiwan Test” (Oct. 28) is wise to warn readers of China’s pressure on the U.S. to “oppose” Taiwanese independence. Beijing’s communist leaders have been doing so for nearly 50 years. To them, “opposing” independence is qualitatively different from “not supporting” it.
The Watergate tapes caught Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger discussing this issue on March 13, 1972. The president said “our private understanding” with Chinese Premier Chou En-lai was that “we won’t encourage it . . . we didn’t say we will discourage it, either.” Kissinger agreed: “We didn’t say we will oppose it . . . If [the Taiwanese] want to secede, that’s their business.”
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