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Diplomacy requires engagement

Marshall Islands President Kessai Note, white shirt beside President Chen Shui-bian, tells Chen how to sail a catamaran. PHOTO: JIMMY CHUANG, TAIPEI TIMES

While Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) took their turns visiting China, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) decided to cement Taiwan's diplomatic relationship with the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu by making trips there, which included a surprise visit to Fiji between May 1 and May 5.

Similar to his previous diplomatic trips, Chen began his days at around 5am and would retire at around midnight almost every day. But reporters and Chen's staff had less time to sleep, as most had to follow the working hours in Taiwan -- which is four hours behind the local time of these three countries -- in a bid to file stories or communiques with their respective superiors or editors.

Staffers planning the president's trip had to walk a political tight rope, as either a too tight or a too flexible schedule could have provided fodder for Chen's political rivals. "If the presidential schedule was too flexible, the president could be potentially blamed for wasting taxpayer money and having fun during his trip. As a result, we had to make the schedule tight and try our best to fit in the president's plan at the same time," said a presidential official, who wished to remain anonymous.

Due to the limitations of local airports of the South Pacific countries, China Airlines, who was in charge of the charter flights for the trip, assigned one of its Boeing 737-800 airliners to the presidential entourage. In addition to the aircraft, the air carrier also assigned three captains, one first officer and seven cabin crews, including a senior chief and a chief flight attendant. The 42 reporters registered to cover the trip were asked to check in their luggage in advance, and each piece of luggage could not exceed 20kg due to security reasons. The Government Information Office (GIO) asked reporters traveling with the president to meet at 3am on May 1, the day Chen departed on his diplomatic tour. It was also the first time for a presidential trip took place in the early hours.

The flight got off the ground at 5:20am, after the president delivered a short speech at the boarding gate. Two F-16 jet fighters immediately took off to escort the presidential flight, until the aircraft left Taiwanese air space. The first leg of the flight was from Taipei to Guam, where the charter plane was refueled and where the president briefly met with local government officials. During the flight Chen told reporters on board that he would ask Soong to be his messenger when he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤). This unexpected comment caused a commotion among reporters, who were collectively trying to figure out a way to file this information.

While the captain was briefing passengers about the latest flight information, reporters began to turn on their cellphones, but only those using Chunghwa Telecom were able to get reception through roaming service.

At the same time, Guam-based GIO officials came onboard and helped TV reporters send their footage back to Taiwan via satellite, since nobody was allowed to leave the aircraft. It was the only live footage of the president to be aired in Taiwan during the entire trip, due to continuing satellite technical difficulties.

After another four hours of flying, the charter plane arrived in Majuro, Marshall Islands, around 6pm local time. The presidential entourage was greeted by Marshall Islands President Kessai Note, government officials and hundreds of local people. Chen and his delegation left the airport after a short welcome ceremony without going through customs. President Note later hosted a state banquet in Chen's honor. The state banquet was a happy, harmonious affair that included fireworks and a Ka keng band -- an Aboriginal Taiwanese band which was invited there to perform in front of the Marshall Islands president and government officials. The presence of President Ludwig Scotty of Nauru, a nation with no formal ties with Taiwan, drew reporters' attention.

When asked about the mood between Chen and Scotty, the anonymous said "they were basically chatting casually."

However, since Nauru and Taiwan announced they would resume diplomatic relations on Saturday, this would suggest that what the presidents talked about at the state banquet in Majuro was a closer relationship between the two countries, but the exact topic of their conversation remains unknown.

On the afternoon of May 2, Note invited Chen to ride a traditional Marshallese catamaran and to try riding the waves along the island's shore. After the catamaran trip, Chen was interviewed by local Marshallese reporters. He told the reporters that Taiwan will help the country develop a stronger economy.

This is a country still recovering from US nuclear tests in and around the Marshall Islands Bikini Atoll and Enewetak Atoll between 1946 and 1958.

Jally Morris, a 69-year-old local pastor, told the Taipei Times that he was about 10 years old when World War II broke out, and has lived long after being through the nuclear bomb tests.

"A lot of people died of cancer and many other diseases that are related to the nuclear weapons testing," Morris said. "But we do not hate Americans. We do not hate anybody. We only hate the wars."

Instead of hating Americans, the Marshall Islands is actually under "free association" with the US. According to the agreement, the US pays US$11 million a year to lease the Kwajalein Atoll where it has a military base. In addition, the US also gives the Marshall Islands NT$30 million a year to help solve the country's monetary problems. US-made items are easily seen everywhere in the country, including the "25 miles per hour" speed limit signs on the sides of the roads and US-made Ford Crown Victorias, which are often used as police vehicles.

When it was time to leave for Tarawa, Kiribati, Chen and his delegation as usual got up around 6am and immediately left for the airport to go on the next leg of the trip. Kiribati, like Taiwan, faces increasingly frequent flooding due to global warming. Kiribati is made up up 33 islands, and has a population of approximately 100,000 people.

After a 70-minute flight, Chen's charter plane landed at Kiribati's International Airport. Although it is considered an "international airport," its runway is actually part of a local highway. In addition, there are no air traffic controllers, and no fences or walls around the airport. As a result, local residents perform all kinds of activities on the runway, as there are only a few flights that land in Kiribati each day. Therefore, incoming pilots need to conduct a "fly-by" to make sure that everything is clear on the ground and to let the local people know that a plane intends to land.

According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), approximately 25,000 people live in Tarawa. It seemed to us that almost the entire population came out to greet Chen and his delegation along the road -- the only road in Tarawa, from the airport all the way to Taiwan's embassy as well as every location where these Taiwanese VIPs went. To one's astonishment, there are a lot of schools in Tarawa. MOFA statistics show that 90 percent of the people of Kiribati can read and speak English -- one of their official languages. Due to the close relationship between Kiribati and Taiwan, a great portion of students can speak a sentence or two in Mandarin.

Ni-hao could be heard repeatedly along the road while Chen and his delegation passed by in their cars.

"Kiribati people like Taiwanese people a lot because they help them with every aspect of their lives," said Hsu Wan-teh (徐萬德), a Taiwanese man who is doing his alternative military service in Kiribati.

Hsu said that local people do not have running water. The only water source for them is the rain. As a result, every household has at least one big water tank that was connected to the roof to collect the rain.

After lunch at the embassy, Chen arrived at the "Taiwan Park" and a stadium, which were both paid for and built by the Taiwanese people. According to the embassy, the foremost concern of the Kiribati people is health. As a result, the Taiwanese government began its aid program by showing the Kiribati people how to grow vegetables.

Since the only hotel in Kiribati was all booked up, reporters were forced to be divide themselves into three groups and check in three different motels. Surprisingly, the motel rooms in Kiribati were extremely clean, although they are not too modern compared to five-star hotels. The shower inside the motel room came from a rain water tank outside.

Everybody got up at 4am since the president planned to greet the first rays of the sun. Chen and his delegates then took off to Tuvalu in three small helicopters. However, only 15 reporters were allowed to continue their trips with the president due to limited seating. The rest of the press was told that the president would be heading to Nadi, Fiji, instead of Guam, for transit purposes. But reporters were asked not to leak this information until the president actually set foot in the country. Chen arrived at Tuvalu's Funafuti International Airport at around 2pm local time.

Before he left Tuvalu, Chen expressed concern about the health of Tuvalu, and said that Taiwanese medical personnel would help their Tuvaluan counterparts with health-related issues in the future.

Back in Tarawa, Kiribati, half of the reporters following Chen re-boarded the the charter flight and were ready to meet with the president in Nadi around 11am. However, the flight was delayed for almost half an hour due to the heat.

"The heat makes it difficult for the aircraft to climb so we may need a longer runway. Unfortunately, the runway is not long enough," a China Airlines employee said. "So we wait, until the temperature drops."

Onboard the aircraft, the cabin crew asked everybody to balance their weight and move forward toward the cabin. The plane eventually got airborne. It was a four-hour flight to Nadi. Chen's helicopter was not yet in Nadi when the charter plane landed.

The Fiji government gave Chen's delegation the privilege to enter the country without going through customs. In addition to cementing Taiwan's diplomatic relationship with these south Pacific island countries, the president's trip also provided an important lesson about the nature of inter-party politicians and reporters, as PFP Legislator Lin Cheng-er (林正二), KMT Legislator Tseng Hua-teh (曾華德) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩) began cooperating during the trip.

"While we were chatting, these three lawmakers told me in private: `We did not know that it took so much work to maintain Taiwan's relations with other countries ... it is so difficult,'" the anonymous presidential source said.

"Inter-party politicians stopped complaining to each other and worked together for the betterment of Taiwan's diplomatic relations," the source added.

In the meantime, due to poor telecommunications infrastructure in the Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu, reporters were told in advance that there might be access to only two or three phone land lines at press centers, and print journalists might have to use dial-up services when connecting with the Internet. However, during the first stop in Majuro, Taiwanese officials there, GIO officials and those young alternative military servicemen had prepared more than 20 broad-band Internet connections and three phone lines for the press.

At the press room in Kiribati, in addition to four phone lines and three fax machines, they set up wireless Internet access in the room, a detail that surprised the press.

"Creating something from nothing is the bottom line for diplomats," said Samuel Chen (陳士良), Taiwan's ambassador to Kiribati.
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