Diplomatic sources on Monday said the new American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) office compound in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) is almost certain to remain unfinished by next year’s targeted completion date, as obstacles to construction were only resolved under Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義).
The AIT has signed a contract with the Taiwanese government to lease more than 65,000m2 of -government-owned land in Neihu for a period of 99 years. The total lease amounts to NT$339 million dollars (US$11.6 million), a sum paid in full by the AIT.
A source said that although then-AIT director Stephen Young held the announcement ceremony in June 2009, it did not mean all the obstacles for construction had yet been resolved.
Obstacles delaying construction were not limited to the preservation of natural scenery, but also stem from a request by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) -administration to the US government for information on the office’s structure and location, including plans for US Marine security guard quarters.
The US Department of State placed an advertisement in the classifieds section of a local newspaper in 2008, requesting solicitations for building Marine security guard quarters at the Neihu office, sparking a highly political question on whether the US would send Marines to guard the compound.
The US declined requests from the Ma administration to provide the construction plans for security reasons, but later resolved the issue through “diplomatic” means, one source said.
The source said the US government had shown patience with the Ma administration over the delays, as this was the first time a foreign governmental organization based in Taiwan had leased land for construction.
However, how the US perceives and evaluates the Ma administration is another matter, the source said.
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