The Presidential Office confirmed yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (
Observers in Washington have said that the US decision to limit Chen's transit to and from Central America later this month to short stops in Alaska was a rebuke after Chen's push for a referendum on applying for UN entry using the name "Taiwan."
Presidential Office spokesman David Lee (
The president cherishes the friendship and relations with the US government, Lee added.
As the main purpose of Chen's trip is to cement ties with the nation's diplomatic allies in Central America after Costa Rica switched allegiance to China, Chen does not want the issue of his transit stops to blur the focus of this trip, Lee said.
Chen is scheduled to leave for Central America on Aug. 20 to attend a summit in Honduras.
Despite US opposition, Lee said Chen would continue to push for a referendum on Taiwan's UN bid.
The referendum issue has touched a raw nerve among State Department and other administration officials at a time when the US needs Chinese cooperation on a number of international fronts.
As such, Taiwan's transit request was the first opportunity the department and others in the administration had to make their displeasure known in a concrete way, observers say.
One source said that during Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) visit to Washington last month, the referendum issue dominated his talks with senior administration officials.
In the discussions, "almost all of the focus was on the referendum," one source said.
The State Department on Friday confirmed that the US had decided to let Chen transit through Alaska, but said that the details of the trip and the transit had yet to be ironed out.
"We understand that the details and dates of the president's travel have not yet been finalized," a department official told the Taipei Times.
"That said, in keeping with our long-standing policy, and in strict conformance with existing criteria, the United States is prepared to facilitate transit in both directions [to and from Central America] through Alaska in August. These arrangements are intended only to facilitate transit to a third country," the official said.
While the official would not discuss the basis for the decision to allow the stopovers in Alaska, she said that the decision was "in accordance with our `one China' policy, along with the three US-China joint communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act."
It was also in keeping with the criteria of ensuring the safety, comfort, convenience and "the dignity of the traveler," the official said.
Chen's trip comes just weeks after the US House of Representatives approved without objection a resolution calling on the Washington administration to allow the Taiwanese president and other high-level Taiwanese officials to visit Washington freely for talks with the US government on matters of joint concern to the two countries.
Taiwan's lobbyists in Washington are making preparations for the resolution to be introduced in the Senate after Congress returns from a month-long summer recess on Sept. 4.
While Congressional members who support Taiwan are bound to be upset about the administration's decision to limit Chen's transit to Alaska, their absence from the capital -- with most currently in their home districts or trips abroad -- will limit their ability to arrange to meet or speak with Chen during his transit stops.
One possible exception would be Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a leading supporter of Taiwan and ranking Republican on the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Murkowski "is always generous with her time" for visiting officials from Taiwan, a source said.
Other Congressional members are likely to try to contact Chen by telephone if they cannot make the trip to Alaska to meet him in person.
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
RSS