Admiral Lee Chieh (
Sources familiar with the trip said that Lee will arrive in Washington the first week of April. He is expected to meet General Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense; and Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense.
Lee will also visit Hawaii, the headquarters of US Pacific Forces and other military installations.
Lee will be the second navy commander from Taiwan to visit Washington in the past decade. Admiral Ku Chung-lien (
As a prominent candidate for Chief of the General Staff, Lee's visit has been expected and is welcomed by the US government, a US official said.
Though one report said that Lee's visa had been denied by the US government, "it has never been an issue," said the official.
There is are no official diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the US.
In 1998, however, Admiral Tang Fei (
People familiar with cross-strait issues pointed out that the timing for Lee's visit is sensitive. With US-Taiwan arms sales talks scheduled to take place at the end of April, and with most of the important items requested by Taiwan's navy -- such as AEGIS-equipped destroyers, P-3 anti-submarine aircraft and diesel-powered submarines -- having been put off by the Clinton administration last year, there is no doubt that Lee will express his concerns about the navy's defense needs, even though the purpose of his trip is not to lobby for the arm sales.
It has been announced that Taiwan's delegation for arms sales talks will be led by General Huo Shou-yeh (霍守業), deputy chief of the general staff. Sources revealed that a high-level meeting on Taiwan policy had been held by the new administration of US President George W. Bush, but that no decision on arms sales was made.
They are not expecting the Bush administration to discuss or brief any possible decision with Qian Qichen (錢其琛), vice premier of the People's Republic of China, who will arrive at Washington on March 21 to visit Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as Rumsfeld.
Analysts believe that both Taiwan and China are using tactics to influence the decision on arm sales.
According to a US official, Taiwan has not yet formally requested the sale of four Kidd-class destroyers. Lee is to be briefed on the combat systems of Kidd destroyers and also tour the warships in person. Sources said that the sale of the Kidds was initiated by the US navy last summer. Taiwan's navy, however, had expressed an interest in buying Spruance-class destroyers, the first large US navy warships to employ gas turbine engines as their main propulsion system.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
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