The US Congressional Taiwan Caucus is apparently upset with the George W. Bush administration's less than enthusiastic approach to Taiwan's WHO bid. What has particularly provoked their ire is that the State Department, having been ordered by Congress to come up with a plan for getting Taiwan into the WHO, has failed to do so. The reason appears to be -- according to the report released on Wednesday -- that the State Department thinks that China wields too much clout in the WHO's corridors of power for any pushing of Taiwan's case to be effective.
Can it be any coincidence that this lack of zeal from the State Department comes the week of Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao's (
It is worth remembering how little is known in the US about Hu. A LexisNexis search of US print media brings up 799 mentions of his name since 1986 when he was a party secretary in Guizhou Province. Lest anybody think that this seems like saturation coverage of Hu's career, let us add that 34 percent of these mentions have occurred only in the last four months and 44 percent in the last year. Previous mentions of Hu's name will chart a career move or his attendance at a conference, rarely a speech and nothing about the man himself. Seldom does a man come to great office, to wield great power, and be so little known to the outside world.
It is natural, therefor, for the Bush administration to proceed with caution. There is need to get to know Hu, to proceed beyond the mindless rhetoric that characterizes so much of China's official face to the world. The satisfaction of that need is not facilitated by taking action that will provoke the usual knee-jerk responses, especially given that Hu has to look tough abroad to remain the frontrunner back home.
Taiwan's WHO bid therefore looks, this year, like a casualty of Washington's need to know Hu better. But there is no point in Taiwan being too upset about this. After all, as Hu jets across the Pacific come details of the conference in Florida last month attended by Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (
For this reason we do not look with alarm to what might come from a Bush-Hu meeting, despite the fact that Hu is expected to be hardline on the issue of Taiwan. Nor do we regret the US's sacrifice of the WHO cause for better relations with China's heir apparent. WHO entry means little more than the
shadow of a propaganda victory for Taiwan against China -- it would be stupid to regret this too much when the substance of US concern for Taiwan is plain to see.
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