American Institute in Taiwan chairman Raymond Burghardt and Taiwan’s representative in Washington, Jason Yuan (袁健生), headed for Los Angeles on Monday to be on hand to welcome President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on his first US transit en route to two of the nation’s diplomatic allies in Latin America.
The decision came after the US State Department confirmed Ma’s transit plans.
Ma was scheduled to land in Los Angeles yesterday evening and to stay overnight en route to Paraguay, where he is scheduled to attend the inauguration of president-elect Fernando Lugo.
After attending the inauguration of president-elect Leonel Fernandez in the Dominican Republic, Ma will stop overnight in San Francisco on Sunday night before departing for Taipei.
With regards to the transit stops, a US State Department official who could not be named because of US government rules regarding Taiwan said: “We understand that his activities will be private and unofficial with no media events, consistent with the purpose of the transit.”
“We approved his request for a transit based on long-standing policy practice, consistent with our unofficial relations with Taiwan, and in keeping with the criteria of safety, comfort, convenience and dignity of the traveler,” the official said.
Burghardt is expected to meet Ma both in Los Angeles and San Francisco, the official said.
Ma’s transits on the US mainland reflect an upgrading of the treatment former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) received in recent years, when his transits were relegated to short — and in Chen’s view “degrading” — stopovers in Alaska. In one of his trips to Latin American allies, Chen rejected the Alaska offer and flew through the Middle East and Africa, stopping in countries with no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
That trip was received with anger by the Bush administration, whose Asian policy experts viewed Chen as a “troublemaker.”
However, Ma was not allowed to transit through the preferred venues of New York or other east coast cities, an indication that the Bush administration is still unwilling to alienate China by giving too much leeway to the Taiwanese president.
Chen visited New York twice early in his term, once to receive a human rights award, and once on a trip that included a meeting with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, a tour of the New York Stock Exchange and a river boat tour.
But as relations between Chen and Bush worsened, Chen’s transits faced increasing restrictions and humiliating treatment.
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