Neo-conservatives in the Bush administration -- led by former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld -- frequently dispatched representatives to Taiwan to encourage President Chen Shui-bian's (
Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to former secretary of state Colin Powell, was quoted in the Congressional Quarterly article in the issue published on Friday.
Wilkerson said that the actions had the potential to generate a conflict -- possibly nuclear -- between the US and China.
He said that White House officials promoting independence were the same as those who engineered the war on Iraq, including Rumsfeld, former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz and former UN ambassador John Bolton, as well as former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) head Therese Shaheen.
Wilkerson alleged that the Department of Defense sent representatives to Taiwan almost every week and told Chen that US-Taiwan relations had now been restored to the level they were at before the 1970s. They allegedly told Chen that "independence is a good thing."
These actions forced then secretary of state Colin Powell to send State Department officials to tell Chen that the White House's "one China" policy remained unchanged, Wilkerson was quoted as saying.
The State Department continued its actions until US President George W. Bush personally asked Rumsfeld to cease encouraging Taiwanese independence and resume military exchanges with China, according to Wilkerson.
Wilkerson was also quoted as saying that Shaheen, a former AIT chairwoman, had claimed that Bush did not mean what he said when he supported the "one China" policy, which upset the Chinese government. She was later relieved of her post.
The report in Congressional Quarterly also quoted former Department of Defense spokesperson Lawrence DiRita as describing Wilkerson's comments as "ridiculous."
"The idea that there was some kind of DoD [defense department] attempt to favor some faction in Taiwan ... is just crazy," DiRita told Congressional Quarterly.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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