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Bill Clinton to make public appearance in Taipei next week

Former US president Bill Clinton is scheduled to make a low-key visit to Taipei next week, his first visit since 1988, sponsors of the trip said yesterday.

Clinton is to arrive in Taipei either next Wednesday or Thursday, the Chinese-language newspaper that is organizing his visit said yesterday.

Clinton's sole public appearance that will be open to the press will be a speech entitled, "Our Shared Future: Globalization in the 21st Century." The speech is scheduled to take place at Taipei's International Convention Center, organizers said.

Continuing a career that has involved many firsts, Clinton's trip to Taipei next week will be the first time that a former US president has visited Taiwan less than a year after stepping down from office.

Clinton was also the first president born after World War II, the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to a second term and the first to face impeachment hearings over deceptions about an affair with a White House intern half his age.

Organizers believe that the visit coming so soon after Clinton's leaving office is the reason that most of the itinerary during his visit to Taipei will not be open to the press.

"He is the former US president who has just left office ... It's not convenient for me to speak on his behalf, but surely they'll have some sensitive considerations," Hsiang Kuo-ning (項國寧), editor in chief of the United Daily News, said at the press conference.

Hsiang declined to specify the price the newspaper had paid to invite Clinton to Taiwan. Clinton reportedly receives US$100,000 for each of his speaking engagements.

Clinton is scheduled to meet President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) during his visit next week, but details have still to be finalized, Hsiang said.

"As for the meeting between President Chen and Clinton, we are still studying the formula, timing and location," Hsiang said.

Clinton has visited Taiwan four times in the past -- in 1979, 1985, 1986 and 1988 -- while serving as the governor of Arkansas, sources in the foreign ministry said.

Clinton is currently in the middle of an Asian tour which will span the region from Australia to Japan from Sept. 6 to Sept. 18, his spokeswoman Julia Payne said on Wednesday.

Payne said that Clinton would not be stopping in Hong Kong on this trip, but declined to specify the details of his other planned stops.

Tonight Clinton will attend a charity dinner in Sydney.

The Children's Hospital in the Sydney suburb of Westmead will benefit from a speech by Clinton at the event, with guests paying A$1,100 (US$572) each to attend.

"It's a very good cause and we're hoping we can make A$1 million [US$520,000] profit from the night," publicist Max Markson said.
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