It will also give him an opportunity to view at close hand the runup to the US presidential election campaign, which is growing in intensity daily, and assess the attitudes of the various candidates toward Taiwan and China.
Wu arrived at the airport only about a half hour before Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), who will be in Washington for three days of talks with US government officials and others trying to promote a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the US.
Lee, an early pro-independence activist during the White Terror era, was the former deputy TECRO representative, and so is familiar with US officials and others in the capital concerned with Taiwanese affairs.
His role as Council of Labor Affairs chief should help him in any FTA talks, since the Democrats who now control Congress are adamant in their insistence that any FTA contain protections for workers, a position resisted by Bush and the Republican Party generally.
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