MAC APPOINTS CROSS-STRAIT NEOPHYTE AS VICE CHAIR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 003116

SIPDIS

STATE PASS AIT/W

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/07/2014
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR CH TW
SUBJECT: MAC APPOINTS CROSS-STRAIT NEOPHYTE AS VICE CHAIR

REF: TAIPEI 02074

Classified By: AIT Director Douglas Paal, Reasons: 1.4 (B/D)


1. (C) Summary: The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) announced
October 1 that Academia Sinica Research Fellow David Huang
would assume the MAC vice chairman position previously held
by Alexander Huang. A specialist in European local politics,
David Huang has no experience in cross-Strait affairs, and
has never worked outside of academia. Huang readily admits
that he knows little about cross-Strait policymaking and the
role of MAC in this process, but said he took the job as a
favor to MAC Chairman Joseph Wu. While a respected political
scientist in his own right, Huang is perhaps best known for
being the son of former Central Election Commissioner George
Huang. End Summary.

New kid on the block
--------------


2. (C) MAC Senior Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san announced
October 1 the appointment of David Huang (Wei-feng) to fill
the post of Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) vice chairman most
recently held by Alexander Huang. The post is the most
junior of three vice chairman positions and is responsible
for Hong Kong, cultural affairs, and liaison with third
countries. Huang is currently an associate research fellow
at Academia Sinica's Institute of European and American
Studies. Huang told AIT that his appointment is still
awaiting President Chen Shui-bian's approval, but reasoned
that MAC Chairman Joseph Wu must have secured President
Chen's consent before offering the job to him. Huang
admitted that he has no background on cross-Strait issues,
but he agreed to take the MAC job in order "to help Joseph."


3. (C) A specialist in European electoral behavior with
degrees from MIT, Cambridge, and Oxford, Huang said that
working at MAC would be a challenge for him. Based on the
briefings he has received from MAC, Huang told AIT that he
could not determine whether MAC is a driver or merely an
administrator of Chen's cross-Strait policy. He said that
MAC appears to be setting its agenda based mainly on public
opinion polls. Citing recent MAC polls, Huang said most
Taiwan residents claim to strongly favor direct air
transportation links with the Mainland. However, equally
large numbers of respondents say they want Taiwan to proceed
slowly with direct links and express concern about security
and immigration problems associated with closer ties with the
Mainland. Huang exclaimed, "With that sort of data, how does
a government formulate policy?"


4. (C) While Huang said he was still in a learning mode for
his new job, he did offer personal views on cross-Strait
policy that generally track with the Chen administration's
stated approach. Huang said that President Chen's offer
early in his first term to pursue "political integration"
with the PRC was an opportunity for meaningful dialogue.
Huang said that Chen would be committing political suicide if
he used the term "unification," thus the integration
formulation was the best he could do politically. If Beijing
had acted on the offer, at least they would have opened the
door to an institutionalized framework to pursue eventual
unification, Huang assessed. Huang added that he believes
the United States should take a more active role in
encouraging Taipei and Beijing to come to the negotiating
table.

Political Family
--------------


5. (C) Although Huang has spent his entire career in research
and has no government experience, he has observed "hometown
politics" first hand as the son of former Central Election
Commissioner George Huang (Shih-cheng). The elder Huang is
among the most astute and successful "dangwai" politicians of
his generation, serving two terms as a non-partisan Changhwa
County Magistrate during the era of KMT one-party rule.
(Note: Huang's reputation, however, suffered a bruising in
the sequence of signal switching the CEC sent concerning the
conduct of the March 20 election and referendums. End note)
The younger Huang said his father did not join the KMT
because of his distaste for the party's authoritarian rule
and because he had his own ideas about how to govern. George
Huang's "distaste" for authoritarian rule, however, did not
prevent him from befriending one of Chiang Ching-kuo's sons
and forming a "blood brother" pact with him. George Huang
later won the political patronage of Lee Teng-hui -- some say
through his sister, reportedly Lee's long-time mistress --
and has remained close to Lee to this day. David Huang said
that his father never shared the DPP's ideology or the former
president's pro-independence stance, preferring to focus on
the practical issues of local governance. Ironically, the
elder Huang decided not to cultivate his more
intellectually-minded son for a political career. That
mantle has fallen to David Huang's younger sister. A
practicing attorney, she is currently running an independent
campaign for the Legislative Yuan in Changhwa, the family's
powerbase.
Comment: Amateur Hour
--------------

6. (C) The 30-something David Huang was tapped for the number
four slot in the MAC hierarchy after the job had by turned
down by former People First Party International Affairs
Director Raymond Wu (Reftel) and at least three other people.
Huang's appointment is yet another reminder of how thin the
Pan-Green foreign policy bench is. Lacking expertise in
cross-Strait affairs and experience in government, Huang's
main asset was a personal relationship with MAC Chairman Wu,
a fellow cross-Strait policy neophyte. While MAC's role may
be only a shadow of what it was under Tsai Ing-wen, the fact
that Huang will be tasked with explaining a policy he readily
admits not understanding himself is a reminder that the DPP
government remains an amateur operation in many ways, even
after four years in office.
PAAL