Irvine Signs Up for Diplomatic Woes

It hardly registered as an international incident, but it certainly ranked as a first-rate global gaffe.

When Irvine’s leaders traveled to China last month to add to its group of sister cities, they pledged that Irvine would agree to recognize only one China, would break off official relations with another of its sister cities in Taiwan and would never display the Taiwanese flag or play its national anthem.

Um, oops.

The mayor described the papers that a staffer signed as harmless, though “unartfully” written. Just the same, the City Council intends to see if it can untangle things next week.

Those in Irvine’s Taiwanese community, meanwhile, said they were stung by what they viewed as an international insult. Several said the city had made a fool of itself and plan to protest before next Tuesday’s council meeting.

“I feel real shame on the city of Irvine,” said Hong-Zong Lin, past president of the Taiwanese American Aeronautical and Space Assn., who helped establish the city’s ties with Taiwan in 1999.

Officials at the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles could not be reached Monday for comment on the incident, first reported in the Orange County Register.

Like many Southern California municipalities, Irvine has developed sister city relations with a number of cities around the world, including Tsukuba, Japan, in 1989, and Hermosillo, Mexico, in 1990.

In 2000, the city adopted Taoyuan, Taiwan, as its third sister city. And last month, officials traveled to sign a five-year sister city deal with the Xuhui district of Shanghai, China.

During ceremonies in Shanghai on May 30, Irvine Mayor Beth Krom and Xuhui’s mayor, Sun Chao, signed a one-page document that said the cities’ relationship would be based on the historic 1979 agreement in which the United States recognized the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of that country, including the island of Taiwan.

A related memorandum signed at the same ceremony by Valerie Larenne, a city staffer who coordinates the sister city program, went a bit further, promising -- among other things -- that Irvine leaders wouldn’t visit Taiwan in any official capacity or display the Taiwanese flag or play its national anthem.

The restrictions were listed in Chinese and translated into English with a spot for Larenne to sign on behalf of the city.

A spokeswoman with Sister Cities International in Washington said 28 U.S. cities and counties have sister city relationships in both China and Taiwan. Albuquerque; Phoenix; Little Rock, Ark.; and San Diego are among them.

But none reported being required to sever official relations with a Taiwanese counterpart as part of the deal.

“I’ve never heard of this being an issue,” said Ami Neiberger-Miller, communications director for Sister Cities International. “To be honest, it’s bizarre.”

Krom said she didn’t learn of the second document until last week because Larenne had been brought into a separate room to sign it. But the mayor suggested that the memo wasn’t intended to force Irvine to cut off relations with Taoyuan.

“This is not something where we had two competing initiatives,” she said. “They understand that we greatly value the relationship with Taoyuan. There was no effort on their part to exert pressure on us. We haven’t bent to the will of anyone.”

Both documents were inappropriate to sign, said Ching-fen Tsai, a member of the Irvine Sister Cities Foundation, because the city is not an arm of the federal government. He said the sister city bond is based on “people to people, not politics.”

“I hope it wouldn’t damage our relationship with Taoyuan,” he said.

Irvine City Manager Sean Joyce didn’t return a call Monday seeking comment. A representative in the Los Angeles office of Taiwan’s government information office also did not return a call or answer e-mails seeking comment.

Irvine council members Christina Shea and Stephen Choi have asked their colleagues to put the issue on the agenda for the council’s June 27 meeting.

Shea said she wanted both documents returned to Xuhui with the understanding that Irvine would sign only a “nonpolitical” arrangement.

“This creates a civil war, and there’s no reason the sister cities program should be doing that,” she said.

“I’m trying to get a handle on who allowed this to happen. There are a lot of questions that haven’t been answered.”

James Dunning, longtime president of the Irvine Sister City Foundation, who also attended the signing ceremony in Shanghai, said the group’s policy has been to emphasize city-to-city relations without displaying national flags or other paraphernalia.

“I’ve got lots of bones to pick with it,” Dunning said of the memo, which he said Larenne may have signed because she didn’t want to embarrass the city by refusing. “It’s demeaning to the foundation. We don’t like to see any restrictions placed on our relations with our sister cities.”