We also have extensive cooperation in science and technology, environment, public health, and other fields. Let me emphasize one aspect of the Administration's policy that is firm and unchanging. The Administration continues to insist that cross-Strait differences be resolved peacefully, as demonstrated in March 1996, when President Clinton ordered U.S. carriers to the waters near Taiwan. The U.S. policy framework, of which the TRA is part, allows us to retain substantive, but unofficial relations with Taiwan, while pursuing improved ties with the P.R.C. Six U.S. administrations of both parties have engaged Beijing in order to promote U.S. interests and to encourage a responsible P.R.C. role in the world. The trade, personal contacts, and dialogue now taking place across the strait were unimaginable twenty years ago.
Economic figures demonstrate how much things have changed.
The P.R.C. is Taiwan's third largest overall trade partner surpassed only by the U.S. and Japan. With 30,000 individual Taiwan firms having invested in the P.R.C., over three million mainland Chinese are now employed with firms benefiting from that commitment of funds. Economic ties have led to increasing personal ties. Last year, there were 1.7 million visits by Taiwan residents to the mainland. Taiwan's security over the long term depends more on the two sides coming to terms with each other than on the particular military balance.