In an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times, a senior official in US President Barack Obama’s administration strongly denied that Washington had approved or knew anything about a Republic of China (ROC) national flag-raising ceremony at the Twin Oaks Estate in Washington on New Year’s Day.
He said the action undermines trust and puts symbolism ahead of real substance, leading many in Washington to ask: “Who in Taipei is in charge of the US-Taiwan relationship?”
The ROC national flag was raised on Thursday last week at the Twin Oaks Estate — the former residence of ROC ambassadors to the US — for the first time since Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing 36 years ago, Representative to the US Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) said. He said the ceremony was made possible under a mutual understanding with the Obama administration.
During the ceremony, Shen conferred upon four ROC military personnel serving in the US the Medal of Merit and the Order of Loyalty and Diligence in recognition of their service.
Twin Oaks was the official residence of ROC ambassadors to the US from 1937 to 1978.
China has already protested to the US, asking Washington to respect its “one China” policy.
US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Monday said that the US “did not know about the flag-raising in advance.”
“We remain fully committed to the US’ ‘one China’ policy, based on the three communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act,” Psaki said.
A senior official from the Obama administration who is familiar with the situation agreed to speak on condition of anonymity.
The source said that the Obama administration had not reached any understanding or consensus with Taiwan’s government to hold the ceremony, nor did the administration approved Taiwanese military personnel wearing their uniforms during the ceremony.
“Any claim to the contrary is incorrect,” the source said.
The senior official laid out seven points to delineate the Obama administration’s position, saying that the US is very disappointed with this action and that it has been so broadly publicized.
“It is a clear-cut violation of our bilateral understanding of our conduct of our unofficial relationship,” the source said.
He said that the action undermines trust and hurts the bilateral relationship after six years of major investment and a major success on the part of the Obama administration.
He said that the flag-raising puts symbolism ahead of real substance, “in a way that sets back our efforts to the development of this relationship.”
He said that many in Washington are now asking: “Who in Taipei is in charge of the US-Taiwan relationship?”
The Obama administration has expressed its serious concern to Taiwan’s government — in Taipei through the American Institute in Taiwan and in Washington through the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office.
Shen is in Taiwan in response to a request from the Legislative Yuan — made last year before the incident — to attend a hearing scheduled for today.
The senior official said that the US government raised its serious concern in Taipei and Washington, and “Taiwan’s officials are just pointing fingers at each other.”
Some Taiwanese officials said in private that this incident might become the most confrontational issue between the US and Taiwan. Its long-term impact on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration — which has emphasized a surprise-free policy approach toward the US — remains unclear.
The senior official said during the interview that Washington hopes Ma will demonstrate the priorities he puts on this bilateral relationship by ensuring that these kind of things do not happen again.
“We hope we can shift the focus of the US-Taiwan relationship to an area in which progress is possible,” he said.
Ma lauded Shen after the ceremony and described the flag-raising as a foreign policy achievement.
The senior US official said that Obama administration’s major concern is that an action was taken that obviously violated the bilateral understanding, while Taiwan claimed that “[US officials] know about it and support it.”
He said that US is very careful when dealing with an issue like this.
The way the Taiwanese government handled the event and the comment made by Ma suggested “that our long-term understanding is now being violated,” the source said.
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
The Supreme Court on Tuesday found four men guilty of attempted murder in the 2017 stabbing of Spanish surfer Ignacio Prio on a Pingtung County beach in the final ruling in the case, sentencing them to three-and-a-half to six years in prison. The defendants had appealed their convictions for attempted murder in the first and second rulings, which had also led to prison sentences ranging from three-and-a-half years to six years. The then-42-year-old Prio went to Jialeshui Beach (佳樂水) near Kenting (墾丁) on March 31, 2017, was attacked after he asked four men to remove their fishing lines from an area
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
NEW ERA: Taiwan, which has controlled its virus outbreak, now faces the challenge of safely resuming economic exchanges with other nations, Chang Shan-chwen said People should not focus entirely on having zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, but neglect overall control over the disease situation, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said yesterday. Chang made the remark at a forum in Taipei discussing the steps Taiwan should take in the post-pandemic era, organized by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views Monthly. Chang, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), and Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention director C. Jason Wang (王智弘) each made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Chang, Wang and Buddhist Tzu
RSS