If the two sides do resume constructive contacts, then the White Paper will appear in retrospect a concession disguised as an ultimatum. No matter the outcome, the three parties to the Taiwan dispute have fulfilled each other's worst expectations over the past fourteen months. Each side has fed the fire. Then Congress retaliated against the PRC's bellicose denunciation of Lee by offering up the Taiwan Security Enhancement bill. It will be extraordinarily difficult for the White House to detoxify this poisonous brew.
Any alternative is a losing gamble for all sides.
Harvey Sicherman, Ph.D., is President of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a former aide to three U.S. secretaries of state.