Taipei Times: What was your impression of the message Chen's inaugural address was sending?
Edwin Feulner: Stability, number one. Continued economic prosperity. I think he has an internal economic agenda that is going to be a little bit different from what Lee Teng hui (李登輝) and the KMT has had in the past.
I think one of the points that was noticeable in the address was cross-strait relations were kind of put back into perspective. It isn't the end all and be all of what his administration is going to be about. It's one piece of it, but it didn't come off at the beginning, it didn't permeate the speech. It's there -- its important. It's critical for the future, but not the whole thing.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
TT: How do you think the speech will be received in Washington, especially the portion which touched on cross-strait issues?
Feulner: Very positively. When we had the opportunity to do a two-way video link with then president-elect on April 13 with congressional leaders, he [Chen] indicated then, to the leaders of Congress, that he was not going to be rocking any boats, that he would not be saying anything that was going to destabilize security in the region. I think he has held firm to that.
The way the speech is worded there is no black-ball to moving ahead next week with the biggest foreign policy decision that's going to be taken this year in the Congress, and that's permanent NTR [normalized trade relations] for China. There's no wrinkle on that. He has said before that he strongly supports it [PNTR] and that's very useful in the context of the US debate.
I think I'd give it a good solid `A.' I don't really think there was anything negative in it.
Having known him for 15 years, since he first started coming to Washington, a speech from him 10 years ago would've sounded a little bit different.
TT: What do you think the new administration could do to improve its image in Washington?
Feulner: With his new Cabinet in place it's almost a government of national unity. With the KMT and independent members in critical positions.
Sending [former Minister of Foreign Affairs] C.J. Chien (程建任) to Washington was a very smart move. He's a man who's not only a foreign minister but who has been in Washington before and knows how Washington works intimately.
Chen Shui-bian now has to be taken seriously in various world forums. Not only in terms of the upcoming ROC-US Business Council meeting that will be held here in July, but also at some of the global investment meetings that will be coming up in the fall.
Chen has to let people know that he is the president of a thriving independent entity that has had a peaceful power transition from one party to another, and that he's got his act together.
The governmental process is continuing to work and is in fact, if anything, doing better than ever.
The worst thing I think [the new government] could do would be to make some kind of precipitous action and lock themselves into some [Washington lobbying] group or some company or something for a substantial period, especially when we [the US] are going through a period of political uncertainty.
Different public relations firms in the United States have different strengths, different political constituencies.
If they come along and they hire somebody who's got very strong Democratic Party ties, they've got difficulty because both houses of the Congress are controlled by the Republicans and who knows who is going to be in control of the White House come November.
TT: In his speech, Chen focused on human rights, freedom and democracy. Will this guarantee security for Taiwan?
Feulner: I don't know if it gives it any guarantees. It certainly gives it a moral claim to the high ground, in terms of a comparison between [Taiwan and China]. You have not only had a democratic and free election again in [this] China but you've also had a transfer of power from one political party to another. The alternative China has got a power monopoly in one political party.
You've also got, as [Vice President Annette Lu (
I don't know how much it matters across the Strait where the old power structure is still very much in place. But what it does mean is that [Chinese] who are able to learn about what is going on here have got an even more vivid contrast to what their living under and what is going on in the rest of China.
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