President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) arrived in New York City at the start of his historic visit Monday, to the cheers of a throng of Taiwanese-Americans welcoming him outside the city's prestigious Waldorf Towers.
More than 1,000 well-wishers lined Park Avenue, waiting in pouring rain for more than two hours before Chen's motorcade reached the hotel at about 6:30pm.
In an unscripted step, Chen got out of his limousine with first lady Wu Shu-chen (
"People are very anxious to see the president," said one of the supporters. "We are here not to see a president, but to have the president see us. We want to give him moral support, especially at this time when everyone is attacking him in Taiwan."
Monday night, in an unprecedented event, Chen and his party had a late dinner with some 21 members of the US House of Representatives that lasted for more than two hours. The law-makers, along with a dozen aides, flew from Washington in a special Air Force C-9 jet for the meeting. Afterward, at about 11:40pm, the same plane took the group back to Washington.
Among the aides were the top Asian policy staffers for both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House International Relations Committee.
It was the first time a Taiwan president has been allowed to meet openly with members of Congress. Such meetings have been blocked by previous US administrations, but the George W. Bush administration earlier this month gave its blessing to the dinner, saying it was in the best interests of the US.
In Beijing, officials stewed and condemned Chen's visit. "China has always opposed all forms of official contacts with Taiwan by countries with which we have diplomatic relations," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao (朱邦造).
California Republican Repre-sentative Dana Rohrbacher, who headed the delegation, said he is "very gratified" that both Republicans and Democrats made the trip. "It should symbolize not only to the people of Taiwan -- but to the people of the mainland -- that the Congress of the United States is solidly behind democracy, solidly behind democratically elected leaders, and we will not see Taiwan being threatened by the use of force."
Rohrbacher said the main message was that "Never will a democratically elected leader find that there's no one here to welcome him because the United States is afraid of making some dictator in Beijing unhappy."
New York congressman Benjamin Gilman and California's Tom Lantos both said they hoped that Chen could travel to Washington next year to address Congress.
"One day soon we hope to welcome you in our House in Washington," Gilman said in a speech during the dinner. "We want you to know that in your time of need as China aggressively deploys missiles across the Taiwan Strait, your friends in Washington strongly support your efforts to ensure that Taiwan remains free."
The congressmen presented Chen with two gifts, Rohrbacher said. The first was a copy of a resolution passed by the House unanimously on Thursday welcoming Chen to the US, which called the visit a "significant opportunity to broaden and strengthen the friendship and cooperation between the United States and Taiwan."
The other was a replica of the Statue of Liberty, "a bond of friendship and a love of justice and freedom that binds our people," Rohrbacher said.
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