President Chen Shui-bian (
The transit request was filed last Monday, three days after Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) said yesterday the ministry was not satisfied with the final result, but did not want to make things more difficult for their "friend [the US]."
Special arrangement
"It is a special arrangement at a special time and such an arrangement will not become the precedent for the president's future stopovers in the US," he said.
"We understand that the US, as one of the world's leaders, is deeply involved with the issues of Iran's nuclear enrichment program, Darfur's refugee problem and North Korea's nuclear ambitions. We understand their position and consideration and are in favor of a peaceful resolution of those problems," he said.
Chen is scheduled to arrive in Paraguay today and to leave for Costa Rica on Sunday. Huang said he was not certain whether Chen would get off the plane during his two-hour transit stop in Anchorage. Chen is scheduled to return to Taipei next Thursday.
Huang declined to disclose why Chen had opted to stop in Anchorage rather than Hawaii or Los Angeles.
A US source has told the Taipei Times in Washington that US President George W. Bush had authorized Chen to stop in Honolulu, Hawaii, on his way to Latin America and in Anchorage, Alaska, on his return flight. Chen, however, is only allowed to rest and refuel and is not permitted to stay overnight in either city, the source said.
Huang dismissed speculation that the arrangement has anything to do with Chen's decision to cease the functions of the National Unification Council and the application of the National Unification Guidelines, saying that the controversy was over.
Huang also dismissed a media report claiming that Chen expressed his personal dissatisfaction to American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Stephen Young on Monday, insisting that he be allowed to make transit stops in New York or make no transit stops at all.
No unpleasantness
Huang said the media report was completely false and that no unpleasant conversations had taken place during the consultation process with the US government. He did, however, admit that Young had visited him on Tuesday to discuss the issue.
Huang said both sides had agreed to direct their attentions to long-term relations and to strengthen bilateral cooperation.
Commenting on Taiwan-US relations, Huang said they were "fundamentally on the sunny side."
Huang said he did not think the arrangement was a diplomatic setback because there had been little time for consultation with the US government over the issue.
Huang blamed Beijing for causing the postponement, saying that China was always working behind the scenes to suppress Taiwan's international activities.
"I don't think this time is an exception," he said.
In addition to voicing the government's firmest and strongest dissatisfaction with China, Huang said Taiwan would not succumb to pressure and the government would do its best to safeguard national dignity and improve the nation's presence on the world stage.
Meanwhile, in Washington, David Lee (
With Tehran threatening to develop nuclear weapons capability, and Bush threatening to use "all options," including, presumably, attacks on Iran to prevent this from happening, the US was eager to gain China's support in the UN, Lee told the Taipei Times in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
The US, UK and France are preparing a UN resolution that would hold out the possibility of sanctions and the use of military force against Iran, but China and Russia have opposed the measure. As a result, Bush wants nothing to stand in the way of his government's ability to convince Beijing to support its resolution, Lee said.
"The Iranian nuclear issue is a very big factor in the decision" on Chen's transit request, Lee said.
The vice ministers of all permanent members of the UN security council held a meeting in Paris on Tuesday to try to get China and Russia to go along with the resolution, and the ministers of the council member countries will hold a meeting in New York next Tuesday to discuss the issue, Lee said.
"If the United States wants to use diplomatic means to resolve the Iran nuclear issue, it has to engage China for support," Lee said.
As a result, the US was "hesitant" to grant Chen favorable treatment, he said.
Lee said the Hu visit and the Iran issue were just two of several reasons for Chen's treatment. But he declined to give details of the other reasons.
The envoy said that the US had approved a "package" dealing with Chen's transit stops on Monday morning Washington time, which he had transmitted immediately to Taipei.
"The government is not too happy" about the US package, Lee said.
Chen himself had been involved in making the final decision on whether to accept the US package, Lee said.
In related news, Bush announced on Tuesday that he had chosen his wife, Laura, to head the official delegation to attend the inauguration of Oscar Arias Sanchez as president of Costa Rica on Monday.
The inauguration is the main reason for Chen's trip to Latin America.
Also in Washington, two co-chairs of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, Sherrod Brown and Dana Rohrabacher, sent a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday urging her to invite Chen to stop over in New York on his way back from Paraguay and Costa Rica, and urging her to communicate directly with Taiwan's elected leadership.
Such a stopover, they said, would "enable members of Congress to travel to New York to meet with the president, providing them an important opportunity to discuss recent developments in Taiwan and in the Taiwan Strait."
Brown and Rohrabacher also urged Rice to "gradually normalize our contacts" and to communicate with Chen directly.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
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
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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