Wed, Sep 10, 2008 page1

• State Department tightens curbs on official contacts

  KEEPING DISTANCE The State Department guidelines, updated just before Double Ten, go as far as to ban US officials from writing a note to Taiwanese officialdom

  • By Charles Snyder / STAFF REPORTER
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  Contacts between US diplomatic personnel and Taiwanese officials and representatives abroad would be strictly limited under new guidelines the State Department has issued that appear to tighten the curbs on bilateral interaction that the department set down in government-wide prohibitions last issued in 2001, a copy of the new guidelines obtained by the Taipei Times on Monday showed.

  The guidelines, which are believed to have been issued last week, go as far as barring any US official from writing a note or letter to any Taiwanese official, and banning US officials from attending Taiwanese events or entering official Taiwanese premises.

  It appears that the timing of the new guidelines is related to the upcoming celebration of the Double Ten anniversary, and to remind US overseas personnel what they can and cannot do or say.

  Ever since the US switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, putting US-Taiwan relations on an unofficial basis, physical contact between the two sides has been severely limited. State Department and White House officials have been very circumspect in their actions and statements regarding Taiwan, which is considered a sensitive topic in Washington.

  The sensitivity has been heightened in recent years, as foreign policy missteps under US President George W. Bush’s administration have forced it to rely heavily on China on many foreign policy issues, and coincided with increasingly contentious US-Taiwan relations during former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) tenure.

  While the overall scope of the proscriptions in the new guidelines go back at least to the administration of former US president Bill Clinton, and were reiterated in 2001 by the Bush administration, the wording contains apparently new limits that disturb some Taiwan supporters in Washington.

  For instance, the guidelines commit the US to a so-called “one-China” policy, a phrase absent in the 2001 guidelines, which were issued shortly after Bush entered the White House as an ardent supporter of Taiwan. Even personal thank-you notes must be written on plain paper and put in plain envelopes to disguise the sender’s official identity.

  The guidelines also ban the display of the ROC flag on US premises, which is a no-no absent from the 2001 guidelines, and bar Taiwanese military personnel from showing up in their uniforms.

  The new document also contains a new section on US non-support of Taiwan’s membership in international organizations, such as the UN, which require internationally recognized statehood for membership.

  But those statements apparently do not pave new ground in long-term US policy toward Taiwan.

  Taiwan supporters were nevertheless angered by the new document.

  “These guidelines are a disturbing step in the wrong direction,” said Coon Blaauw of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs, a pro-independence activist organization based in Washington.

  Most of the shackles on US-Taiwan official communication contained in the 2001 guidelines are carried forward into the new document.

  “Meetings between [US] officials and Taiwan authorities outside the United States must be held outside [US government] and Taiwan offices,” the guidelines say.

  Embassy personnel can only attend Taiwanese functions held in restaurants or in individuals’ homes and cannot accept invitations to functions at official premises and vice versa.

  US officials outside of Washington cannot attend any Taiwanese function “held on or around October 10.”

  No US official can travel to Taiwan without the express permission of the State Department’s Taiwan coordinating office in Washington. In any event, all high-level visits are banned.

  Congressional efforts to force the administration to scrap the guidelines have been unanimously endorsed by the House of Representatives twice in 2006 and 2007, but were blocked both times in the Senate.

  The efforts, championed by US Representative Tom Tancredo and others, would add a provision to State Department funding bills to prevent the department from using any funds to enforce the guidelines.

  When the bills reached the Senate, which is generally averse to backing narrowly framed bills, the Appropriations Committee substituted its own funding bill that eliminated the Taiwanese provision.

  No such bill was introduced this year.

  In Taiwan, when asked for comment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was looking into the matter.

  ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU
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