The former mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani, gave both Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) and Premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) the cold shoulder when they visited his city, but made the effort to meet President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) when he made a transit stop there. For this reason, people payed close attention to the attitude of Giuliani's successor, Michael Bloomberg, during the recent visit to New York of Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
There was another reason for paying close attention. During this year's Lunar New Year, the city government sponsored a New Year's party at the public library in Flushing -- an area known as "little Taipei." Bloomberg attended to demonstrate his support for the Chinese and Korean immigrants of that district. But the person who sent out the invitations only sent one to the Chinese consulate in New York and none to Taiwan's Economic and Cultural Office.
People were rather surprised by the absence of members of Flushing's overseas Chinese community, while the distinguished guests included an abundance of people from outside the area. Luckily, the first Chinese-American member of New York City Council, John Liu (劉醇逸), himself from Flushing, had invited officials from Taiwan's Chinese Culture Center in New York and the complete "reddening" of the event was avoided.
During Hu's visit, Bloomberg and New York State Governor George Pataki met with him. In 1997, Pataki refused to meet with Jiang, and in 1999, when Zhu visited, Pataki also initally refused to meet him. Later, after one of his close friends intervened and urged him to meet Zhu, he finally did so, briefly and reluctantly. The fact that they all came forward to meet him this time could be said to have greatly bolstered Hu's prestige, though naturally, that won't be easy for Jiang to accept. Of course, this was only a courtesy call. There was no possibility of discussing issues in depth in such a way that differences in values might arise.
Afterwards, at a routine press conference, when Bloomberg was asked whether he would also meet officials from Taiwan, he stated that he would certainly welcome visitors from both countries. The New York Sun gave front-page headline coverage to what it called Bloomberg's "two-state theory." The paper praised Bloomberg for disavowing the "one China" policy of China and the US government while at the same time eschewing Giuliani's policy of refusing to meet Chinese officials. An editorial in the paper quoted social commentators as say that for a politician, a slip of the tongue amounts to speaking the truth.
The director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, Andrew Hsia (夏立言), said Bloomberg "was simply stating the reality." China's Consulate-General in New York refused to comment.
Whether or not Bloomberg's "two-state theory" will influence the business prospects of his com-pany, Bloomberg Media, in Beijing remains to be seen.
On April 4, US President George W. Bush created a storm of controversy when he mentioned China and the "Republic of Taiwan" in a speech at the State Department to spur the passage of two trade bills. Bush's two-state theory was mostly interpreted as a "misstatement" or a "slip of the tongue." In fact, it was also a description of reality.
Back when former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) spoke of "special state-to-state" relations between Taiwan and China, it was a direct description of reality and certainly not a "misstatement." Even so, Beijing harshly criticized the statement and even politicians in Taiwan were apprehensive about it. When not even reality can be stated, what justice is there in this world?
The two-state theory is coming into vogue among overseas Chinese in the US. Groups that support Taiwan and those that support China have begun to have relations with each other. They can identify with the Chinese flag while not regarding the ROC flag as anathema. The fact that pro-China groups were the first to reach out in this way shows that China is gradually beginning to recognize the two-state theory. Otherwise, those overseas Chinese leaders wouldn't be so courageous.
If China could really be this pragmatic, then peace in the Taiwan Strait would be guaranteed. Neither Bush nor Bloomberg will need to provide any explanation for a "slip of the tongue." America, go forward bravely!
Paul Lin is a political commentator based in New York.
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