American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Douglas Paal is scheduled to leave his post on July 1, and his likely replacement will be veteran diplomat Stephen Young, sources in Washington and Taipei told the Taipei Times yesterday.
When asked to comment on the issue, AIT deputy spokeswoman Nadine Siak confirmed that Paal is planning to leave, but said she had no further information on the date of his departure or who his replacement would be.
A US government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that it was an "open secret" in Washington that Young was Paal's most likely successor.
PHOTO: US STATE DEPARTMENT
Young is currently the US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, a post he has held since July 25, 2003. He has been in the US Department of State for 25 years, and is a former AIT deputy director as well as a former director of the State Department's Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs.
AIT is the de facto US embassy in Taiwan established under the US' Taiwan Relations Act, and appointments to the post of AIT director -- in effect the US ambassador to Taiwan -- do not require Senate confirmation.
The appointment of a career foreign-service officer as the head of AIT would probably be greeted with enthusiasm by State Department officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, the source said.
"With Steve [Young], you know what you are getting," a separate source in Taiwan said.
"At least he's diplomatic -- a real professional," the source said.
Many observers of Taiwan-US relations have said that the Bush and Chen administrations have had a difficult relationship in recent years, and some have specifically said that part of the problem was the personal animosity between President Chen Shui-bian (
One senior US official said that Chen and Paal "dislike each other so intensely that they hardly ever meet."
The official cited a series of missteps and miscommunications as the source of the friction, saying that "Paal had the deck stacked against him before he even came to Taiwan."
"Some Taiwanese officials were very open about their dislike of Paal before he came to Taipei," the official said.
"As a result, Paal understandably had a chip on his shoulder when he got here," the official said.
However, the US government source said this was idle rumor-mongering.
"Even if there were personal issues, Doug [Paal] and Chen are too professional to let it affect US-Taiwan relations," the US source said.
It was not immediately clear if Paal plans to continue in government service. But the US source said it was widely thought that Paal would be "promoted" within the Bush administration.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
RSS