"DEEP GREENS" ATTACK TAIWAN REPRESENTATIVE IN

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 000795

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/10/2031
TAGS: PGOV PREL TW
SUBJECT: "DEEP GREENS" ATTACK TAIWAN REPRESENTATIVE IN
WASHINGTON


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Classified By: AIT Acting Director David J. Keegan, Reason(s):
1.4 (B/D)


1. (S) Summary. Taiwan's representatives in Washington and
Brussels, David Lee and C. J. Chen, are under attack from
Deep Green ideologues, who view them as opposition Kuomintang
(KMT) holdovers unwilling to vigorously push the Green cause.
David Lee, under attack for his supposed weak advocacy on
the NUC/NUG issue, will have to tread very carefully during
the upcoming visit of KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou. Taiwan,s
EU representative C. J. Chen may be another target of the
ideologues for supporting Ma during his EU visit last month.
End Summary.


2. (S) One week after President Chen's January 29 Lunar New
Year speech announcing that he was considering abolishing the
National Unification Council (NUC) and National Unification
Guidelines (NUG),deep-Green DPP legislator Trong Chai (Tsai
Tong-rong) launched a public attack calling for the
replacement of TECRO Representative David Lee for weak
advocacy of President Chen,s policy. The reason for this
attack was that the Formosan Association for Public Affairs
(FAPA) in Washington had complained to Taipei about Lee,s
performance, according to Lo Chih-cheng, Executive Director
of the DPP-affiliated Institute for National Policy Research.
(Note: Trong Chai was the founding president of FAPA. End
Note.) Lo said that while Lee takes a professional
non-ideological approach to his work, the Deep Green
fundamentalists at home and abroad want Taipei to assign
representatives who have an ideological outlook. Foreign
Minister James Huang and DPP Legislator Bikhim Hsiao, no
friend of Trong Chai, came to Lee,s defense, but according
to Lo, Huang,s defense was &tepid.8


3. (S) KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou,s overseas visits are
proving a special problem for Taiwan,s senior
representatives abroad, many of whom have a KMT background.
Lo said he expects the next target of the Deep Green
fundamentalists to be Taiwan Representative to the EU C. J.
Chen (Cheng Chien-jen),because of his support and
participation in Ma's high profile visit to Europe last
month. Taiwan's representative in Geneva Shen Lu-hsun sat
next to Ma during a briefing for the Taiwan press there on
February 9. The photo of the two together was widely carried
in Taiwan papers. Probably to avoid a similar situation, Lo
noted, the Green-leaning Taiwan Representative to the UK Dr.
Edgar Lin departed London on vacation shortly before Ma
arrived in the UK.


4. (S) Lo stressed that because of his KMT background and
the flap over the NUC/NUG issue, David Lee, whom Lo described
as a "close friend" of Ma, will have to be especially
carefully in handling Ma,s upcoming visit to the U.S. in
late March. Lee, Lo explained, is a close personal friend of
Ma.


5. (S) Comment. The criticism of Lee and Chen fits into a
broader suspicion of the Foreign Ministry among Deep and even
Light Green adherents. We have heard many tell us that the
Foreign Ministry was among the most resistant to direction
from the Chen administration when it first assumed office.
The international orientation and foreign education common
among its senior professional staff also made senior Green
leaders, many of whom have little foreign exposure,
especially uncomfortable. MOFA officials in turn have made
it clear that they do not believe they are trusted by senior
political leaders, especially those in the Presidential
Office. Several have suggested that the recent allegations
of misuse of funds against Victor Chin (Chin Jih-hsin),a
MOFA rising star currently serving as Taiwan Representative
in New Zealand and formerly Director General of North
American Affairs, are being pursued with especial vigor
because he is widely perceived as a Blue sympathizer. End

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Comment.
KEEGAN