Former US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs Randall Schriver met with senior Taiwanese politicians yesterday, with the stymied special arms procurement budget at the top of his agenda.
Schriver went to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters yesterday and met with party Chairman Lien Chan (
The Liberty Times is the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times.
Schriver also met with Premier Frank Hsieh (
Schriver's key focus in his discussions was the NT$410.8 billion (US$12.8 billion) arms budget to procure eight diesel-electric submarines, 12 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft and three PAC-3 Patriot anti-missile batteries, according to the reports.
The budget has been consistently blocked in the legislature by the pan-blue camp, which has argued that the arms package is unnecessary and too expensive.
The pan-green camp has argued that the weapons systems are necessary to bolster the nation's defenses, in light of the rapid modernization of the Chinese military and Beijing's bellicose attitude toward Taiwan.
Although he has left government service and now works for Armitage Associates -- a consulting firm run by former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage -- Schriver will be meeting with virtually all of the nation's top officials during his three-day visit. He is expected to hold meetings with President Chen Shui-bian (
In addition to his tenure at the Department of State, Schriver also served in the Pentagon as the senior director for China, Taiwan, Mongolia and Hong Kong during the Clinton administration.
During his postings in both Democratic and Republican administrations, Schriver made a name for himself as an outspoken advocate of democracy and strong supporter of Taiwan.
"Randy [Schriver] had a widespread reputation for being one of the strongest supporters of Taiwan's democracy in the Bush administration," a US government insider told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Although Schriver understands the importance of US-China relations, "he would never support anything to give up Taiwan or its democratic achievements" in order to placate Beijing, the source said.
Because of his views on the importance of democratic development in East Asia, the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy invited Schriver to deliver a speech yesterday evening on "Taiwan and global democratization."
The speech was delivered at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' training center on Taipei's Dunhua South Road.
In a meeting yesterday with Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (
"The rise of China has caused negative feelings in political circles in the US," Schriver told Wu, according to the MAC.
"What China has done recently, including increasing its deployment of missiles aimed at Taiwan and enacting the `Anti-Secession' Law, has decreased the degree of mutual confidence in the cross-strait relationship," Schriver told Wu.
Schriver and Wu agreed that the best way to deal with China's rise is to facilitate its peaceful democratization, the MAC said.
Schriver is scheduled to meet with the president today, and is expected to be awarded one of the national orders, such as the Order of the Propitious Clouds, the Presidential Office said in a statement released yesterday. additional reporting by Shih hsiu-chuan
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