AIT CHAIRMAN DISCUSSES U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS, BEEF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 TAIPEI 001410 SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/TC STATE PASS USTR FOR STRATFORD, ALTBACH AND O'CONNOR, TREASURY FOR OASIA/WINSHIP AND PISA, NSC FOR LOI, COMMERCE FOR 4431/ITA/MAC/AP/OPB/TAIWAN, STATE PASS USDA FOR FAS/OSTA BLUM, BEAN, AND DAWSON; FAS/OCRA RADLER, BURDETT, AND BEILLARD; FAS/OFSO SALLYARDS; APHIS/IS AND VS; AND FSIS/HARRIES E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/12/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR ETRD EAGR TW CH SUBJECT: AIT CHAIRMAN DISCUSSES U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS, BEEF WITH TAIWAN LEADERS REF:. A. TAIPEI 1399 ¶B. TAIPEI 1398 Classified By: AIT Director Bill Stanton. Reasons: 1.4 b/d ¶1. (C) Summary: President Obama strongly reaffirmed U.S. policy on Taiwan during his recent trip to China, AIT Chairman Ray Burghardt told ruling Kuomintang (KMT) officials and opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)leaders during his November 22-25 visit to Taipei. Taiwan officials urged the United States to underscore its commitment to Taiwan through public statements and actions such as arms sales. The Chairman also emphasized the importance of Taiwan meeting its commitments under the recently signed protocol allowing expanded imports of U.S. beef. He noted possible repercussions for both Taiwan's reputation as a trading partner and future agreements with the United States should those commitments not be met. End Summary. -------------- -------------- Angst Over U.S.-Taiwan Ties, Beef Flap Common Themes -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) On November 23-24, AIT Chairman Ray Burghardt met with Taiwan's top government officials and politicians, including the President (ref A),Vice President, Premier, Legislative Yuan President, Acting Foreign Minister, Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman, and leader of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party. Burghardt reviewed President Obama's visit to Asia, with a special emphasis on his trip to China, noting that the President's talks in the PRC focused primarily on regional and global issues. On the few occasions Taiwan was discussed, the Chairman noted, President Obama strongly reaffirmed existing U.S. policy. Burghardt used his visit to allay concerns in Taiwan that closer U.S.-China cooperation came at the expense of Taiwan, and that the wording of the U.S.-China joint statement represented an erosion of U.S. support for Taiwan. Interlocutors across the POLITICAL spectrum pressed for more arms sales as a sign of U.S. support and asked for public guarantees that the U.S. stance on Taiwan remained steadfast, ;which Burghardt provided at a media roundtable (septel). ¶3. (C) Taiwan should not back away from its commitment to expand market access for U.S. beef based on the recently-signed protocol, Burghardt told his interlocutors. Both Legislative Yuan (LY) President Wang Jin-pyng and Premier Wu Den-yih urged the United States not to insist on re-gaining access to the Taiwan market for offal and ground beef, which they claimed represented only 2-3 percent of potential imports under the protocol opening. While Taiwan consumers worried about health risks from offal and ground beef, Wang and Wu emphasized, they had no problem with bone-in beef, which accounted for the vast majority of the potential imports under the accord. DPP leaders, however, insisted on reopening the beef protocol negotiations to specifically prohibit imports of offal and ground beef. The opposition party underlined the target of its criticism in the beef flap was President Ma Ying-jeou's administration, and not the United States. -------------- Meeting with LY President Wang Jin-pyng -------------- ¶4. (C) Chairman Burghardt's meeting with LY President Wang Jin-pyng and 3 KMT lawmakers from the LY Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee focused on arms sales. President Ma had to manage Taiwan's security by balancing its RELATIONS among the United States, the PRC, and Japan, Wang stressed. Continued improvements in the cross-Strait relationship and, TAIPEI 00001410 002 OF 004 by extension, stability in the Western Pacific, would only be possible, he suggested, if Taiwan could negotiate with the PRC from a position of confidence. The key to this was a strong U.S. commitment to Taiwan and, specifically, continued arms sales to the island. On beef, the LY President argued that the controversy was largely a campaign issue that would diminish after the December 5 local elections. Still, he said, public concerns about the safety of offal and ground beef probably would lead to administrative or legislative measures to block their import. Wang also pressed for more negotiations under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA),a U.S.-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement (FTA), and Taiwan's entry into the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). -------------- Meeting with DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-weng -------------- ¶5. (C) DPP Chair Tsai Ing-Wen and two senior associates used their meeting with Burghardt to launch a legalistic word-by-word debate over the joint statement issued by Presidents Obama and Hu after their meetings. In an often tense meeting, Tsai and her colleagues, Joseph Wu and Bikhim Hsiao, said they were particularly alarmed that the joint statement had stated "respect of each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity" was fundamental to U.S.-China relations. Tsai told the Chairman she would publicly decry what she saw as an erosion of U.S. support for Taiwan and urged the United States to prove otherwise with statements supporting a peaceful resolution in cross-Strait RELATIONS that took into account the will of the Taiwan people. Throughout the meeting, Burghardt insisted the joint statement represented no change in U.S. policy or in U.S. suport for Taiwan. ¶6. (C) Tsai denied the DPP had purposely fomented the U.S. beef controversy as a campaign issue ahead of year-end local elections, noting that it had been KMT legislators who first pushed for amendments to the Food Safety Law to restrict the importation of U.S. offal and ground beef allowed under the newly-signed protocol. The DPP's sole motivation in protesting the controversial imports, Tsai insisted, was to protect the health of Taiwan people. The United States had always been an honorable friend and unfailing supporter of Taiwan, Burghardt said, and would never sell Taiwan unsafe food products. Moreover, Burghardt stressed that Americans fed the same beef to their children and grandchildren everyday. He also noted the apparent contradiction between Taiwan's desire to gain access to international organizations while at the same time rejecting the standards of such organizations as the Organization for Animal Health (OIE),in which Taiwan was a full member. -------------- Meeting with the Mainland Affairs Council -------------- ¶7. (C) Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan told Chairman Burghardt the decision on when to begin formal negotiations of an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with China would probably be made after the December 21-25 talks between Taiwan,s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and the PRC,s Association for RELATIONS Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS). She added, however, that the Ministry of Economic Affairs had already begun consulting with various industry groups about the possible economic impact of an agreement. Regarding President Ma,s policy of enhancing cross-Strait economic ties, Lai reiterated that the Ma administration fully intended to continue focusing on resolving comparatively straightforward economic issues, leaving more difficult POLITICAL issues for the future. Lai TAIPEI 00001410 003 OF 004 expressed appreciation for statements of U.S. support for Taiwan, adding that the Ma administration hoped for continued assistance in expanding Taiwan,s participation in international organizations such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). -------------- -------------- Meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Shen Lyu-Shun -------------- -------------- ¶8. (C) In his meeting with the AIT Chairman, Deputy Foreign Minister Shen Lyu-Shun suggested seven steps the United States could take to strengthen US-Taiwan ties: reaffirming the U.S. commitment to the Taiwan RELATIONS Act; reaffirming the U.S. commitment to the so-called Six Assurances offered to Taiwan in 1982; continuing arms sales; scheduling high-level visits; moving forward on TIFA; publicly supporting Taiwan's meaningful participation in international organizations, specifically ICAO and UNFCCC; and approving Taiwan for the visa-waiver program. -------------- Meeting with Premier Wu Den-Yih -------------- ¶9. (C) Premier Wu Den-yih noted that Taiwan research institutes saw a growing disparity in the cross-Strait military balance. Taiwan could not compete with the PRC,s massive military build-up, Wu said, but hoped to maintain a strong self-defensive capability based on U.S. arms sales, specifically F-16 C/D jets. President Ma had based his decision on U.S. beef imports on three principles. First, the people of Taiwan had to be allowed to consume bone-in beef free of safety concerns. Second, any changes the Legislative Yuan made to the Food Safety law had to be decided on a bipartisan basis. Third, Taiwan needed to demonstrate its trustworthiness by honoring all commitments made under the WTO and the U.S. beef protocol. Wu expressed concern that consumer protection groups were lobbying for a referendum calling for renegotiation of the beef protocol, a sign of public concern about the perceived danger of eating U.S. offal and ground beef. To avoid this, Wu suggested that the United States forgo the 2-3% of potential expanded imports represented by offal and ground beef, and accept the much more significant increase in imports of relatively non-controversial bone-in beef. Safety concerns about U.S. beef and beef products were unfounded, Burghardt countered, noting the beef protocol with Taiwan had been modeled, at Taiwan,s insistence, on the U.S. agreement with South Korea, which had been OIE-consistent for beef from cows under 30 months of age and did not simply expand access for bone-in beef. Burghardt thanked Premier Wu Den-yih for helping to expedite permits for the AIT New Office Compound. -------------- Meeting with Vice President Vincent Siew -------------- ¶10. (C) Taiwan had not done effective "public communication" before the announcement of the beef agreement, Vice President Vincent Siew admitted. Although the DPP would likely only exploit beef as a short-term campaign issue, he warned that consumer groups were "the real problem" and would keep the issue alive by organizing a referendum. He encouraged AIT to take such steps as sharing more information with Taiwan about the safety of U.S. beef, inviting LY members from both major parties on fact-finding visits to U.S. slaughterhouses, and cooperating with beef importers to produce safety advertisements and other promotional materials. Turning to broader trade issues, Siew said re-starting talks between the TAIPEI 00001410 004 OF 004 United States and Taiwan under TIFA would be an important step to "build the blocks for a future free trade agreement (FTA)" and create a more favorable climate for closer economic relations. Just as the United States had issues it wanted to address through TIFA, Siew said, Taiwan also had "items of interest," including bilateral investment and tax agreements, that the United States had to be prepared to negotiate. Because some people on Taiwan thought their government was improving ties with Beijing while ignoring the United States, he added, the Ma administration wanted to improve economic RELATIONS with Washington as well. STANTON