The spat over the US' rejection of President Chen Shui-bian's (
In a move that was seen as displeasure at the US' rejection of Chen's request to transit through the US mainland, Chen instead made surprise stopovers in Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam instead of going through Anchorage, Alaska, on the way to Paraguay.
Chen initially wanted to make stopovers in New York, San Francisco or Miami before continuing on to Paraguay and Costa Rica, but the US only offered Hawaii and Anchorage as options.
The president said the reason for the rejection was to uphold the country's dignity, but the move has caused many at home to speculate about what they view as deteriorating Taiwan-US relations.
Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) also blamed Washington for leaking information that Chen had decided not to travel via Anchorage, which resulted in the failure of the president's attempt to stop in Beirut, Lebanon.
Alexander Huang (黃介正), director of the Graduate Institute of American Studies at Tamkang University, yesterday said that Taipei should calm down and avoid employing a "tit-for-tat" strategy.
"We need a more balanced approach when we engage with the US," he said.
Confrontation unwise
Alexander Huang, who formerly served as deputy chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council and as a senior consultant to the Taipei Economic and Culture Representat-ive Office, said it wouldn't be wise for Taiwan to confront the US, as both countries have many overlapping interests, particularly in the face of a rising China.
"International relations are about power. They're not like laws where you can always ask for fairness," he said.
He said the unhappy interlude resulting from Chen's decision to call off the stop in Anchorage should not be a major issue and would not cause a backlash in US-Taiwan relations. Rather, what the US would really care about was the issue of constitutional reform which Chen has vowed to press on with.
"The US separated the issue of Chen from the Taiwanese people. The Bush-Hu meeting was a good example of how the US will not hurt Taiwan's interests. Therefore, the interlude shouldn't be a problem to future bilateral relations," he said.
Cheng Tuan-yao (鄭端耀), deputy director of the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University, said it was not necessary for the US to be so heavy-handed in dealing with Chen this time as Taiwan has always been a reliable and important partner to the US.
"I believe some conservative voices from within the US will censure the government. It was not really necessary to humiliate Chen in this way. It was as if the US was reprimanding Taiwan like a child in front of China," Cheng said.
If Taiwan's relations with the US worsen because of this matter, it could undermine Taiwan's foreign relations and international standing, particularly with its diplomatic allies in Latin America, especially as many of them maintain their diplomatic relations with Taiwan because of the US' support, he said.
Raymond Wu (吳瑞國), vice president of the Cross-Strait Interflow Prospect Foundation, said the misgivings caused by the transit issue showed that the mutual trust between Taiwan and the US was in doubt.
Clarity needed
"Taiwan needs to be clear about what it wants. The US and Taiwan share a lot of fundamental values, so Taiwan needs to work on these and discover more common fundamental interests between the two countries," Wu said, adding that the US was now like an "over-stretched giant," occupied with many other international issues such as Iran and therefore would not appreciate Taiwan causing it more trouble.
Meanwhile, in Washington, former deputy assistant secretary of state Randall Schriver said the Bush administration's decision was aimed at Chen personally and some actions taken by Taiwan since the end of last year, and was not related to the recent meeting between US President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Schriver added that these developments have had a negative impact on interaction between Taiwan and the US, and that he could not see how this could be helpful in any way to US-Taiwan relations.
Top officials in the Bush administration had decided that Chen's transit through the US should be kept low-key and US-Taiwan relations will enter into a cooling off period, which would have a negative impact on bilateral relations, he added.
Schriver said American Insitute in Taiwan Director Stephen Young was a very capable diplomat, and he thought it was necessary for officials in Taipei to immediately engage in intense and sincere dialogue with Young by directly asking him what concrete action Taipei should take to improve the overall situation, avoid a repetition of the incident, and stop the US-Taiwan relationship from entering a negative cycle.
Bonnie Glaser, senior associate in the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the US' decision on Chen's transit stop took aim at recent Taiwanese actions, and the Bush administration wanted to send a clear signal to let Taiwan know that it was displeased with Chen's handling of the National Unification Council and guidelines issue.
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