Lu slams weakness of US, Japan

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday criticized Japan and the US for allowing China to interfere in their diplomatic policies, and urged the US government to respect President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as Taiwan's head of state and treat him accordingly during his stopovers in the US on his forthcoming trip to Latin America.

"Last year President Chen and I both suffered humiliating treatment while we transited in the US en route to Latin America," Lu told US womens' leaders at the Presidential Office yesterday.

"I will therefore never visit the US unless the US promises to treat me in a dignified way," Lu said.

Lu said that Chen was prevented while making his stopover in Los Angeles last August from meeting any US politicians and was even prevented from receiving any overseas Taiwanese in public.

"Later, in September, I led a delegation which transited in Miami and San Francisco [during another visit to Taiwan's Latin American allies]," Lu said, "and you wouldn't imagine the treatment we received."

The vice president said that while in Miami, the US government had prevented her and her delegation from attending a party held by overseas Taiwanese in a local hotel. In San Francisco she had been forced to cancel a meeting with the presidents of Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard.

"I became a hostage in my hotel," Lu said. "I studied in the US and I was elected as vice president of the ROC. I was prevented from travelling as a normal visitor in the US, not because I violated US law but just because the US government did not dare to offend Chinese leaders."

Lu also told her guests that the reason the Japanese government still refused to give Taiwan's former president, Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), a visa to allow him to visit Japan for medical treatment was China's opposition.

"That kind of situation violates the principles of human rights. If this goes on, I will raise my voice to accuse China not just of being a dictator of the Chinese people but also of trying to become the dictator of the whole world," Lu said.

Lu urged the US to ignore pressure from Beijing and treat Taiwan's leaders with courtesy. She also stressed her hope that the new US government would deal with Chen's upcoming US stopover in a fair and appropriate way and give him the treatment he deserves.

The vice president made her remarks after the deputy secretary-general to the president, Eugene Chien (簡又新), formally announced details of Chen's tour from May 21 to June 4 to five Latin American countries.