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民進黨主席暨總統候選人蔡英文美東時間今（14）日下午，出席於美國國會山莊所舉辦的美國國會議員歡迎酒會，其致詞全文如下：

今天，我十分榮幸來到美國國會，與各位台灣的好朋友共聚一堂。首先感謝眾議院外交委員會的朋友們，尤其是外交委員會Ros-Lehtinen主席與Howard Berman議員的熱情款待與歡迎。

也要感謝台灣人公共事務協會(FAPA)，感謝會長楊英育教授以及FAPA所有同仁的努力，讓這場活動圓滿成功；另外也感謝台灣駐美代表處的袁健生代表，與代表處同仁們。

台灣是個還很年輕的民主國家，我們景仰美國為建國所做的奮鬥，成就今日的美國在國內與全球，提倡與促進民主和人權價值。

有兩份美國文件，相信台灣人應該都不陌生。其一是「獨立宣言」，裡面提到：「我們認為以下這些真理是不言而喻的 - 人人生而平等，造物者賦予他們若干不可剝奪的權利，其中包括生命權、自由權和追求幸福的權利。」另一份文件則是「台灣關係法」。因為各位國會朋友的堅持，以及台灣的努力爭取，將有關安全的條款納入「台灣關係法」，使台灣這些年來得以受到安全的保障。台灣人民感謝各位長期以來的支持，更感謝你們的努力確保美國維持對台灣安全的承諾。在此也要特別感謝各位近來對軍售台灣的支持，這正是我們迫切需要的

然而藉此機會，我也想再強調「台灣關係法」裡面幾個容易被忽略的重點。在「台灣關係法」第二條的第三項提到：「本法律的任何條款不得違反美國對人權的關切，尤其是對於台灣地區一千八百萬名居民人權的關切。玆此重申維護及促進所有台灣人民的人權是美國的目標。」台灣走過將近40年的戒嚴，歷經許多奮鬥，台灣爭取民主，這是你們也堅守的價值信念。我的政黨，民主進步黨，相信台灣須透過全民對話的民主過程，建立全面的「台灣共識」，作為兩岸對話以及與其他國家平等交往的基礎。

台灣需要您持續的關注與協助，以確保台灣人民的自由，確保台灣未來前途的選項開放，確保台灣人民的人權不受侵犯。

台灣與美國站在一起，身為美國的朋友與伙伴，貢獻己力，為我們所在世界的所有國家帶來民主、人權與正義。

 

Remarks

Chair Tsai Ing-wen

Capitol Hill reception

September 14, 2011

I am honored to be here in the US Congress, among all of you who are such good friends of Taiwan.  I want to especially thank the Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Ranking Member Howard Berman, for so graciously welcoming my delegation.   

Thanks, also, to Bob Yang, FAPA president, for his organization’s hard work to make this reception a success and to Representative Jason Yuan and TECRO as well.

We are a young democracy in Taiwan.  We look to you because of your rich history and the many struggles you have been through to craft a strong nation, one united in its commitment to democracy and human rights at home and abroad.

There are two US documents that everyone in Taiwan knows: the Declaration of Independence with its ringing “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and that unique piece of legislation, the Taiwan Relations Act. Thanks to the security provisions of the TRA, provisions that Congress insisted on, as well as to our own efforts at home, my country has been secure through these many years.  We Taiwanese cannot thank you enough for this support and for all the current efforts being made by so many Members to insure that the United States keeps its commitments to the security of Taiwan. I want to express a special thanks to all of you for your recent efforts to support the arms sales to Taiwan that are urgently needed.

However, I want to underscore that section of the TRA that often gets overlooked: Sec. 2 (c) which states: 
(c) Nothing contained in this Act shall contravene the interest of the United States in human rights, especially with respect to the human rights of all the approximately eighteen million inhabitants of Taiwan. The preservation and enhancement of the human rights of all the people on Taiwan are hereby reaffirmed as objectives of the United States.

We fought hard to establish ourselves as a viable democracy, fighting for during almost 40 years of martial law for the rights we all hold so dear.  My party, the Democratic Progressive Party, believes that today we need to engage in a national dialogue to develop a full “Taiwan consensus”, a democratic process to form a basis for cross-strait talks and discussions with any and all others as equal partners. 

We need your continued assistance to insure that we remain a free people, a people for whom all options for the future remain open and whose human rights remain inviolate.

We pledge to stand with the United States as a good friend and willing ally in the long project of bringing democracy, justice and human rights to all nations of this world of ours.