US Congress presses for Chen visit

Several congressmen urged the George W. Bush administration to allow visits to Washington by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and other top Taiwanese leaders Wednesday, but received a cool response from Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia James Kelly.

The congressmen, members of the House International Relations Committee, made their pitches during a hearing on the 25th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act.

Leading the charge was Tom Lantos of California, the committee's ranking Democrat.

"I, for the life of me, cannot understand the continued insistence of this administration on truly absurd diplomatic policies such as denying the president of Taiwan the right to visit Washington, DC, the right to meet with members of Congress here in our nation's capital," he said.

The policy "allows Beijing to make policy for members of the United States Congress as to where they may have the opportunity to meet with the head of a very friendly government," he said.

Addressing his remarks to committee chairman Henry Hyde, one of Taiwan's leading supporters in Congress, Lantos said, "It is my fondest hope that both you and I will have the honor of greeting President Chen in Washington in the foreseeable future."

Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican, urged that the Taiwan Relations Act be amended to allow for visits to Washington by Chen and other Taiwanese leaders.

He said that the act "still has a lot of problems, one of which is that we ought to recognize their head of state and treat him or her, whoever it is that's elected to that position, as a head of state."

"If I had my way, I would alter the Taiwan Relations Act to allow the head of state from Taiwan to be able to visit the United States as a head of state, and discuss problems directly with our president," he said.

Kelly, however, threw cold water on these and other similar suggestions raised during the hearing.

"I think any changes of that sort would have to be very carefully made," he said.

Policies such as that which bars Chen and others from visiting Washington "are continued only because of the reasons and messages that a change would convey.

Reception of a government leader in the United States constitutes a recognition that goes way beyond celebrating a democratic process, and would compromise the `one China' policy that has marked our relations with Taiwan and the PRC since 1979," Kelly said.

Current US rules allow Chen and other top Taiwanese leaders to secure transit visas for travel usually to Latin America to attend various functions in those countries. The transits are usually good for stopovers in New York and Los Angeles.

Several members of the committee have made the trip to New York in recent years to hold meetings or dinners with Chen during those transits.