PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2008: Officials advise Bush over referendum

The three co-chairmen of the US Congressional Taiwan Caucus have urged US President George W. Bush to muzzle his foreign policy aides and prevent them from making further statements opposing the planned referendum on Taiwan's UN membership in the run-up to the presidential election on March 22.

The congressmen, in a letter sent on March 5, said they were disturbed by the anti-referendum statements that key State Department officials have made in recent months.

"The United States' repeated high-volume opposition to the referendum casts doubt on our willingness to stand up for democracy and undermines our position as a champion of democracy in East Asia," the lawmakers wrote.

Steve Chabot, Shelley Berkley and Dana Rohrabacher were the signatories of the letter.

In the letter, they urged the Bush administration to "remain silent on this issue for the remainder of the ongoing presidential election campaign in Taiwan."

"The US should not be perceived as taking sides and should let the democratic process in Taiwan run its course," the letter said.

Many observers both in Washington and Taiwan have interpreted the administration's vocal criticism of the referendum as a sign that the administration favors Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) over Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate.

While the administration has rejected the idea that it favors one candidate over the other, many observers feel that just by voicing opposition to the referendum the administration is helping to give Ma a leg up in the election.

The congressmen's letter describes the referendum as "a great exercise in democracy."

"We are pleased by the great strides toward democracy that Taiwan has made in the past few decades and see this referendum as a milestone along their journey," they wrote.

A copy of the letter was sent to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who twice in recent months has voiced opposition to the referendum, calling it "provocative policy" in a new year's press conference in December, and saying that "it should not be held," in a joint press conference in Beijing recently with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎).

Her deputy, John Negroponte has also made statements condemning the referendum, including in an interview with a Hong Kong-based Chinese television station and in a press conference during a visit to Beijing.

The three Taiwan caucus co-chairs sent their letter just one day after the House of Representatives approved virtually unanimously a resolution praising Taiwan's democracy and voicing support and admiration for Taiwan's elections, democracy overall and close US-Taiwan friendship.