MEDIA REACTION: U.S.-TAIWAN RELATIONS

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 001227 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/P, EAP/PD - THOMAS HAMM DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: U.S.-TAIWAN RELATIONS Summary: Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies focused news coverage October 14 on American International Group (AIG) Inc's announcement Tuesday that it will sell its stake in a Taiwan life insurance company to a Hong Kong-based financial holding company; and on a controversy involving the Taipei City Government and a DPP city councilor over the security of a gondola in Taipei. The pro-unification "United Daily News" ran an exclusive news story on page six with a banner headline reading: "Opening [Taiwan's Market] to U.S. Bone-in Beef, 'Hopefully before the End of this Year.'" In terms of editorials and commentaries, an op-ed in the pro-independence "Liberty Times" discussed what it believes to be President Ma Ying-jeou's "serious" tilting toward China. The article cited several cases, including AIT Director William Stanton's reported remarks on former President Chen Shui-bian's legal case during his recent visit to Taiwan's Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng, and the Ma administration's alleged attempt to refuse U.S. rescue and relief assistance in the wake of Typhoon Morakot in early August, and concluded that Taiwan's badly tilting toward China has finally made the United States see the true face of Ma. End summary. "Ma Ying-jeou Putting the United States Ill at Ease" Columnist Paul Lin opined in the pro-independence "Liberty Times" [circulation: 680,000] (10/14): "The U.S. government had felt much relieved initially when Ma Ying-jeou assumed the presidency, as relations across the Taiwan Strait had greatly improved as a result of Ma's pro-Beijing policy. Yet the follow-on development was not the case because [Ma's] tilting toward the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has become surrendering himself to the CCP. [Such a development] has kept the United States on its toes, which can be illustrated by several events happened lately. "New AIT Taipei Office Director William Stanton said during his visit to Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng on September 30 that some people outside Taiwan have different views about the legal cases of [former President] Chen Shui-bian. Why did Stanton want to comment on Bian's case and run the 'risk of intervening with Taiwan's internal affairs'? Obviously it was because the United States felt that it is no longer a purely judicial issue. ... The editorial in the September issue of 'Taiwan Business Topics' published by the American Chamber of Commerce also indicated that Taiwan should strengthen its relations with the United States while improving cross-Strait relations, because the United States is Taiwan's most important ally in the international community. ... Prior to that, Ma's [attempt to] 'eliminate the Green [staffers]' in the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) had caused the National Endowment for Democracy supported by the U.S. Congress to write to Ma, hoping that FOD's independence and quality work would not be thus jeopardized. "What did such events tell us? Not only has Ma lost balance in his handling of [Taiwan's] relations with the United States and with China, but these events are related to the regression of the basic values that must be upheld by [Taiwan as] a democratic country. What made the United States most uncomfortable was the fact that in the wake of Typhoon Morakot in early August, Ma had sought to stop U.S. rescue personnel [from coming to Taiwan] on the one hand and attempted, on the other hand, to allow the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to come to conduct rescue operations in Taiwan. Until now Ma has yet to clearly explain what really happened then. ... "Taiwan's serious tilting toward the Communist Party has made the American people come to realize Ma's true face. In order to reinforce Taiwan-U.S. relations, a 'Liberty Times' news report recently quoted sources from Washington as saying that the Obama administration has completed an internal policy review toward Taiwan and is planning to send Eric Shinseki, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and a four-star Japanese-American general, to visit Taiwan in the spring of 2010 -- a move that will break the record that no Cabinet officials from the Bush administration ever visited Taiwan. The move will certainly make the PLA, which is aimed at defeating American Imperialism and liberating Taiwan, ill at ease, and it will make Ma, who is joining hands with the CCP to restrain Taiwan, uncomfortable. But with his green card and other relevant information held in the hands of the U.S. government, will Ma dare to make the United States uncomfortable just to make China feel good? ..." STANTON