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New Pentagon Asia expert has ties to Taiwan

The George W. Bush administration is about to name Richard Lawless, a long-time intelligence officer and businessman with strong commercial ties to Taiwan, as the Pentagon's next leading Asia expert, Pentagon sources say.

The sources, who spoke to the Taipei Times on condition of anonymity, confirmed press reports that Lawless, 56, will be named soon to replace Peter Brookes -- who recently announced his resignation -- as deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia and the Pacific.

The appointment, which does not require congressional confirmation, could come as soon as this week. In announcing his decision to leave, Brookes delayed his departure until a successor could be found.

Lawless is the chairman of USAsia Commercial Development Corp, a firm he founded in 1987 whose main current focus is Taiwan and South Korea.

Before starting the firm, Lawless spent 15 years in the CIA, where he rose to director of operations. He also served in State Department positions in Seoul, Tokyo, Vienna and Washington. In addition, he has long-term ties to President Bush's brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

While his posts in Japan involved primarily technology and communications, his positions in Seoul included serving as principal liaison to the South Korean Agency for Defense Development and nuclear energy officer.

In Taiwan, according to USAsia's Website, the company is involved primarily in new business development, project management and support. The office has helped US companies enter Taiwan's cellular market and has been active in cultivating investors from Taiwan and elsewhere in telecommunications pipelines, submarine cables, long-distance telecommunications, cellular telecom and semiconductors.

It also helped develop the first direct submarine cable link between China and the US, a $1.4 billion project.

According to the Washington Times, which first reported Lawless' likely appointment, Lawless got the job with the help of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

This has raised concerns among conservatives that the appointment will boost Armitage's role in Asia policy and in China policy in particular.

However, Pentagon sources say that the Defense Department had recommended Lawless to the White House for the job.

In any event, this could set up a rivalry between Armitage and Lawless on the one hand, and Michael Pillsbury, the Mandarin-fluent head of the independent Pentagon Advisory Group, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who is said to be Pillsbury's mentor at the Pentagon, on the other.

Lawless' appointment might also have been advanced by his long friendship and lucrative business dealings with Jeb Bush, which date back to the late 1980s.

According to articles in the St. Petersburg Times in 1998, Jeb Bush was introduced to Lawless in 1987, the year Lawless left the Reagan administration to start USAsia, and when Bush was Florida's commerce secretary, leading a trade promotion mission to Asia.

The two men "quickly established a relationship that from 1989 through 1993 would bring Bush more than US$500,000 in fees from commercial real estate deals," the newspaper reported.

In addition, USAsia won a US$160,000 contract to promote Florida exports to Asia and later contracts worth US$60,000 for an industry organization setting up trade missions to Asia for the Miami area.
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