Taiwan has lost out to China in the merger of two Washington-based lobbying companies.
While the details are being kept secret, the giant Patton Boggs has in effect taken over the boutique Breaux Lott Leadership Group.
Both companies make a living by “lobbying” or persuading members of the US Congress and other politicians to adopt policies promoted by their clients.
In this merger, the dominant Patton Boggs has China as a client, while the much smaller Breaux Lott has Taiwan.
As a result, Taiwan is being dropped by the newly merged firm.
In a contract negotiated in May of last year with Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office Representative Jason Yuan (袁健生), Breaux Lott has been receiving US$35,000 a month to represent Taiwan.
It is not known how much China has been paying Patton Boggs, but it is presumably much more.
Breaux Lott was run by former Democratic senator John Breaux of Louisiana and former Republican senator Trent Lott of Mississippi. They will both now work for the new company, but it is not known if they will be part of the China account.
If so, they will have to make a dramatic U-turn on some issues, such as arms sales.
According to published reports, Breaux and Lott had a contract with Taiwan that required them to “advance and promote” Taiwan “at all levels of the departments and agencies of the US Government.”
They were also obliged to help Taiwanese officials with “introductions to and negotiations with senior officials” of the US government.
Lott was supposed to work “diligently to exhort members of Congress and the United States Senate to act favorably on matters of interest and benefit to Taiwan.”
In addition, he was to provide recommendations and advice on how best to improve relations between Taiwan and the US.
The decision by the new lobbying company to drop Taiwan has caused quite a stir in Washington political circles involved in Asian issues.
Coen Blaauw, executive director of the Formosan Association for Public Relations, said: “If relations between Taiwan and China are so good, why can't the new firm work for both countries?”
“But no, they can't,” Blaauw said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS