Before taking over the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in May, Delaware's Democratic Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr often reminded witnesses testifying at committee hearings that he and then-chairman Jesse Helms were good friends.
He was at his most vocal in this when scolding members of his fellow-Democrat Bill Clinton's administration. Urging them to do something that Helms wanted them to do, he would trumpet words to the effect that, "you had better do this quickly, because the chairman and I are good friends, and I know that he will do something about it. You had better listen to him."
Despite that professed friendship, Biden and Helms are far apart in their political philosophies and world views. So when control of the Senate switched from the Republicans to the Democrats this spring, it signaled that the committee is likely to look at the world in a different way and that attitudes toward Taiwan and China will be among noticeable changes.
That was underscored clearly last week when Biden led a bipartisan, four-member congressional delegation to Taiwan and China to become the first foreign relations chairman to make such a trip in many years. By contrast, Helms had never visited another country as congressman until he ventured to Mexico last year.
The five-day visit to Taiwan and China was precedent-setting in several ways. It demonstrated that Biden planned to take a more hands-on approach to China and Taiwan issues than did Helms, and that he hopes to become a more influential player in US policy toward the two nations. It also shows that he is seriously interested in cultivating relations with China, and is willing to maintain more of an arms-length relationship with Taipei than did his fiercely anti-China, pro-Taiwan Republican predecessor.
Downplaying remarks
If nothing else, the trip helped to focus his attention on the Taiwan issue. His first words on arrival in Taipei were to play down US President George W. Bush's April statement that the US would do "whatever it took" to defend Taiwan against a mainland attack.
While he strongly condemned Bush's remarks right after Bush made them in a TV interview, the fact that he repeated them in Taiwan was significant.
Then, after meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民), Biden seemed surprised that the Beijing leadership was more interested in Taiwan than in the strategic issues that Biden came prepared to discuss.
"They are sending a not-so-subtle message -- you have a problem with Pakistan, with Iran; we have a problem with Taiwan," Biden said.
Whether and how the visit will change Biden's thinking on cross-strait issues remains to be seen as he has given no indication.
Biden, 58, is a member of the Democrat's moderate wing, who has made most of his mark in the Senate on crime legislation and Supreme Court nominations as head of the Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995.
Originally elected to the Senate in 1972 at the age of 29, he immediately suffered tragedy when his wife and infant daughter were killed in a Christmas traffic accident that left his two sons critically injured.
In 1987, he ran an ill-fated campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination that was sidetracked by charges that he plagiarized a campaign speech.
He dropped out of the race just before discovering a blood clot in the artery to his brain that almost killed him and kept him hospitalized until the following spring.
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