TOKYO -- China doesn't like it that the United States has given
Taiwan President
Chen Shui-bian a visa for a stopover in Los Angeles this coming Sunday
(August 13)
on his way to the Caribbean.
A less subtle reaction caused by the seemingly innocuous visit of Chen
to the
L.A. International Airport transit lounge is the nervousness caused in
Tokyo, where
bureaucrats are mulling preparations for an official visit to Japan by
Chinese Premier Zhu Rong-ji
in the fall.
The complication in Japanese eyes is that former Taiwan President Lee
Teng-hui also wants to make a visit to Japan his year, possibly to his
alma mater Kyoto University.
Japanese politicians, including many from the ruling Liberal-Democratic
Party,
want Japan to stand up to China on the issue.
Other Japanese think it is about time both Chinese andTaiwanese leaders
at least sit down and talk. The successful realization of the South-North
Korean summit is given as an example of how talks could help move the
situation toward peace or at least ease tensions.
Taiwan's Chen has said he would be prepared to meet Chinese leader
Jiang Zemin in a similar summit face-off. While China has praised the
Korean accommodation, Beijing still insists that no dialogue with Taipei
is possible until it first accepts the "one-China principle" acknowledging
the mainland's sovereignty over Taiwan.
On August 4, the Chinese government urged the United States to reverse
its decision to give Chen a visa. The U.S. has been closely involved with
the China political evolvement as it has been with the situation in Korea.
China backed North Korea's entry in the United Nations some years ago
to help Pyongyang return to the world. This was difficult since the "United
Nations Command" was the ostensible enemy of North Korea and China in the
Korean War.
But it shows that nothing is impossible in the world of diplomacy, even
diplomacy engineered by
the Chinese Communist Party. We could awaken some dawn to find that
Beijing's idea of a relationship with Taiwan has changed. Don't look for an
abrupt change to happen by
Saturday but we have seen some vague nuances in Chinese reaction to
suggest that they are thinking things over.
When former President Lee Teng-hui visited Cornell University in 1995,
Beijing broke off semiofficial contacts with the United States and began
conducting war games that culminated in firing missiles into the sea near
Taiwan in 1996. The U.S. responded by dispatching two aircraft carrier to
the area Beijing's temper flared again when the United States granted Lee
a transit visa in 1997.
A State Department official said granting Chen's stopover is part of a
longstanding U.S. policy toward Taiwan's leaders. He said Chen would not
meet any U.S. officials, although he will meet Richard Bush, chair of the
American Institute in Taiwan, which handles unofficial U.S. ties with the
island.
Taiwan also angered China by making a fresh attempt to join the United
Nations, saying 12 allies had submitted a proposal asking the world body to
grant membership. Taiwan makes the attempt every year and each year is
defeated. Although this is the first such effort under Chen's
administration, there is no reason to expect this bid to succeed.
Twenty-nine countries recognize the diplomatically isolated
island, mostly poor countries in Africa, Latin America and the Pacific.
Taiwan, formally known as the Republic of China, lost the China seat in the
United Nations to Beijing in 1971.
Edward Neilan (eneilan@crisscross.com) is a veteran journalist, based in Tokyo, who covers East Asia and writes weekly for World Tribune.com.