Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) yesterday defended the nation's top envoy to the US, David Lee (李大維), amid local criticism that Lee did not make enough effort to allay US concerns over President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) remarks about possibly scrapping the National Unification Council.
"David Lee communicated with the US under orders from Taipei. The communication between both sides is honest and straightforward," Huang said yesterday.
Huang made the comments yesterday in the legislature in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chai Trong-rong's (蔡同榮) calls on Sunday for Lee to be replaced due to his failure to allay US concerns over Chen's plans to abolish the council and guidelines for national unification.
In response to the criticism, Lee said on Sunday that he had communicated with the US a number of times in the past week and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a record of the communiques which could be reviewed if necessary.
Lee said that Chai could check the ministry's records from the past week to "see how many times I've dealt with Washington and how much information I've sent back to Taipei."
Nevertheless, Chai yesterday continued to lambaste the Lee, saying he should step down immediately for failing to make any effort to engage the US media and think tank academics in voicing support for Taiwan in the wake of Chen's Lunar New Year statements.
Chai dismissed Lee's remarks, saying that making contact with the US authorities was only the most basic thing an envoy should do.
The lawmaker said that Lee should have actively engaged the media, called press conferences or sent opinion articles to the press and urged US academics and congressmen who are friendly towards Taiwan to make supportive comments at this critical moment.
"These are also things that he should have done, but he didn't. So can you say he is capable?" Chai asked.
The lawmaker also rebutted speculation that the reason he made critical comments about Lee was because he was interested in his position.
"I would never accept that position. There is nothing suspicious about my intentions," the lawmaker said.
Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) yesterday also spoke out in support of Lee, saying the dispute must be a misunderstanding and that as far as she knows, Lee did contact US academics, think tanks and politicians for support at the very first opportunity after the president's remarks.
Hsiao said the criticism extended towards Lee was not fair as the diplomat's work sometimes has to be conducted in an extremely low-key manner. She said that it therefore didn't mean Lee hadn't done anything simply because there were no news report about it.
Local media yesterday reported that Chai's call for Lee to be replaced reflected the dissatisfaction of pro-independence heavyweights, including senior presidential advisers Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) and Wu Li-pei (吳澧培). The reports said that these influential persons suspected that the envoy was promoting cross-strait unification, a political stance that was at odds with the president's.
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