The US government will make a decision soon on who will head the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a position that has been vacant for 16 months since the former chairperson, Therese Shaheen, one of Taiwan's most ardent friends in Washington, was fired by US President George W. Bush over her disagreements with Bush's Taiwan policy at a time of US discontent with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
The US wants to have the new chairperson in place in time for Chen's planned transit through US cities en route to a state visit in Latin America in late September, Taiwan's top representative in Washington, David Lee (李大維), told the Taipei Times.
Lee would not comment on Taipei reports that Raymond Burghardt, a former director of the Taipei office of the AIT, would be chosen as the next chairman.
He did say, however, that "the US government will make its decision soon, and it should be announced shortly."
"One of the most important reasons" for the haste, Lee told the Taipei Times after his regular monthly "tea party" press conference for Taiwanese reporters in Washington, was "that President Chen is going to make a transit in the US, so the US needs to have someone representing it to receive President Chen."
Regarding the transit, Lee said that Washington and Taipei have "worked out the principals, but there are still a lot of details to be discussed. Most details cannot be worked out at this moment because a lot of Americans are still on vacation, and Congress will not return until after Labor Day [Sept. 5]. After Labor Day we will work out the details."
While the State Department is not expected to allow Chen to visit the eastern half of the US, the actual cities he visits are expected to be different ones from those he visited before, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston and Seattle.
Lee said that he accepted there would be wide-spread speculation that Burghardt's appointment would represent a continued degradation of the position of the AIT in Washington since Shaheen left, in favor of an enhanced role for the organization Lee heads. This organization is the Taipei Economic and Cultural Relations Office (TECRO), which has well-established direct ties with the State Department, Pentagon, White House and other US offices.
Regarding reports that Burghardt would stay in Hawaii, where he is connected with the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, Lee said, "if that happens, it would not be the first case."
"There are precedents," he said, noting that current acting chairman William Brown does not work at the AIT full time, but is drafted as needed to receive high-level Taiwan politicians visiting the US.
The day-to-day affairs of the AIT in Washington, Lee said, have been handled by a deputy, Barbara Schrage.
He said that Brown has represented one half of the AIT's role, the "face," while Schrage has played the other essential AIT role, the "substance."
"To me, as a professional diplomat, I always consider the substance to be more important than the face," Lee said.
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