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Legislator calls for US to apologize to Lee Jye

"It is unbelievable that there were such errors in government correspondence. It could be an unwitting mistake, but it could also be that the US did it deliberately, to humiliate Minister Lee."

Lin Yu-fang, KMT legislator

A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator yesterday demanded an apology from a top US defense official, saying he had misspelled the name of Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) and gotten hics title wrong in a letter.

US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Asia and the Pacific Richard Lawless mixed up the minister's name in the letter, KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said at a press conference where the three-page letter was enlarged and attached to a poster.

The letter, signed by Lawless, was addressed to Lee on June 27 this year, and was in response to the Taiwanese Navy's request that the US assess the feasibility of a two-phase approach of selling diesel submarines to Taiwan.

According to the letter provided by Lin, the minister's salutation was correct. But the latter part of the letter reads: "As you are aware, on 20 May 2004 and 7 July 2004, I wrote to former Defense Minister Li Chieh on this issue."

The reference to "former Defense Minister Li Chieh" appears to be a mistaken reference to Lee Jye. Lee took up the post of Minister of National Defense on May 21, 2004. His predecessor was Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明).

Lin refused to reveal how he had gotten hold of the letter but said it was an authentic copy.

"It is unbelievable that there were such errors in government correspondence. It could be an unwitting mistake, but it could also be that the US did it deliberately, to humiliate Minister Lee and vent its anger over the long-delayed arms deal," Lin said.

The legislator said the US should apologize for the error and Lee should send a letter to Lawless demanding an apology, to defend his dignity and that of the nation.

Lin said that he opposed the US' offer of a two-phase approach to sell Taiwan diesel submarines.

"According to the letter, the US made no concessions on the deal," he said.

Lin said that the design fee for the diesel submarines would be US$360 million (NT$10.94 million), as mentioned in the letter.

The price was far above quotations on the international market, Lin said.

"The high design fee will push the price of each diesel submarine up to US$1.2 billion. Is it possible that we can accept such a high figure?" he said.

Lin said he also opposed a condition mentioned in the letter that Taiwan would not be allowed to maintain the diesel submarines in accordance with the design, without submitting to the US' export control regulations.

"Now that we need [to spend] so much money to get the design graphics, we should retain the intellectual property rights," Lin said.
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