Secretary Kissinger: No, we will work to make it clear that it is not this type of situation. We will not now attempt a solution which we have both rejected.
We have, it seems to me, two basic choices. There are two roads we can now follow: We can continue the present process, which is tolerable, and gradually withdraw our forces from Taiwan, which will continue in any event -- whatever you decide here. We will increase our relationship with you as we have done in the past three years, and wait for the opportune time to complete the process with one decision.
Or, we can do a process in which we complete the political part of our relationship quickly and make it clear that we are solving the issues of sovereignty -- of one China and one Taiwan -- at once, and find a formula in which the symbolic thought of Chairman Mao is expressed. An effort of peaceful reintegretation over a reasonable period of time. We do not want a voice in the discussion on peaceful reintegration. That should be left to the Chinese. We do not want to participate in that process.
Chang Han-chih: I'm not clear about the first part of your statement.
Secretary Kissinger: The Vice Premier said that of course the one hundred years is symbolic. I understood the symbolic nature of Chairman Mao's statement about a hundred years. I understood it to mean that you are willing to give the peaceful process time to work -- that while philosophically the resolution will probably come about by force, you are prepared to give the peaceful road a long opportunity.
We do not want to participate in the process of reintegration. And we have no difficulty affirming the principle of one China. So our issue is not one China, one Taiwan.
Foreign Minister Ch'iao: If I understand correctly, I see what you mean is that you are for one China, but the one China you want is a one China which is achieved through peaceful means.
Secretary Kissinger: Exactly. For at least a reasonable period of time. We want to avoid a situation where the United States signs a document which leads to a military solution shortly after normalization. But we do not want a commitment which maintains the separation. What we have in mind -- we may not know the formula, but what we have in mind seems compatible with what Chairman Mao says in terms of the process.
TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE
