Washington Presence : Unofficially, Taiwan Is Alive, Well

He represented a country that does not officially exist. He was not on the diplomatic lists and he was not permitted to set foot inside the White House or the State Department.

Yet when Frederick F. Chien left here to return to Taiwan last month after serving for five years as its unofficial ambassador to the United States, his goodby party was nearly as large and lavish as an inaugural ball.

Those sampling the shrimp and the strawberries in the ballroom of a deluxe Washington hotel included senators and congressmen; officials of the State, Defense and Justice departments, and representatives of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the business community and leading universities and think tanks.

For Taiwan, it was more than just a party. It was a show of force, a public display of its continuing influence in Washington.

Formidable Presence

Nearly a decade after the United States withdrew diplomatic recognition from Taiwan, its Nationalist regime remains a formidable presence here. Its hundreds of operatives have managed to keep alive and flourishing the solid core of support in Washington that dates back more than four decades to the days of what was then called Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s “China lobby.”

In December of 1978, at the time President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States was establishing diplomatic relations with the Communist regime of the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan was shell-shocked.

When then-Deputy Secretary of State Warren E. Christopher visited Taiwan to make arrangements for “unofficial relations,” his car was pelted with eggs, tomatoes, mud and rocks and battered with bamboo poles. Taiwan’s vice foreign minister--who was, ironically, the same Frederick F. Chien--declared that future ties between Taiwan and the United States could be continued “only on a government-to-government basis.”

‘Unofficial Status’

But over the course of the last 10 years--because of its political sophistication, its long experience in Washington and its growing economic strength--Taiwan has managed to adjust and, indeed, to thrive in its “unofficial” status.

“I would not have expected it,” said Paul Kreisberg, an Asia specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It has been a source of astonishment to everyone that Taiwan has emerged as strong a force here as it has.”

In the days of the old “China lobby,” Taiwan’s appeal in the United States was closely linked to anti-communism and its base of support came largely from the right wing of American politics. These days, citing the importance of political reforms back home, Taiwan officials here try hard to appeal to liberals as well as conservatives, Democrats as well as Republicans.

“They say they are good anti-communists, they say they are important trade partners, and they say they are becoming a democracy,” one Washington-based China specialist said. “The Nationalists are pretty good at moving back and forth among these three, depending on the audience.”

In an interview before his departure, Chien admitted to a degree of access in Washington that would be the envy of most ambassadors. During his tenure here, he said, he met personally with all 100 members of the U.S. Senate and with approximately 230 members of the House of Representatives.

He also saw leading officials of the Reagan Administration.

“All the meetings (with executive-branch officials) have to be on neutral ground, such as restaurants, hotels and what-not,” he explained. “But this does not mean that we have less interface with U.S. government people than before 1979. . . . In terms of frequency, it’s much more frequent now than before 1979.”

For example, he said, State Department officials regularly came “in a large number” to dinners at his home.

One senior U.S. official acknowledged that in practical terms, the prohibition against meeting with Taiwan officials at the State Department and White House “is not very meaningful.”

To manage the “informal” ties with Taiwan, the United States set up a new organization, the American Institute on Taiwan, with offices in both Taipei and Washington. In theory, it is a private organization, separate from the U.S. government. In reality, it is staffed by U.S. government officials on regularly established short-term leaves of absence.

Near State Department

The institute’s office is in Rosslyn, Va., just across the river from the Foggy Bottom section of Washington. It is closer to the State Department than is the Pentagon. Whenever State Department officials need to see Taiwan officials, they simply take the 10-minute subway or cab ride over to the Taiwan institute and meet them there.

Taiwan’s counterpart to the institute, called the Coordination Council for North American Affairs, which serves as its unofficial embassy, is located in a new building in northwest Washington and includes 120 Taiwan nationals.

That is only the beginning of Taiwan’s presence in the United States. A separate military procurement section in another building here has almost 70 people, making it by itself larger than most Washington embassies.

In addition, Coordination Council has 10 other offices, which serve as unofficial Taiwan consulates, spread around the United States in Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, New York City, Kansas City, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu. In all, another 350 to 400 Taiwan nationals work in these offices.

By way of comparison, China has only five consulates, and even Britain, the United States’ closest ally, has 10, the same number as Taiwan. (Japan now has 14 consulates in this country.)

Taiwan’s strong ties in Washington are greeted with increasing tolerance in Beijing--which seems mindful of the possibility that Taiwan some day may be reunified with the mainland and that, under the right circumstances, Taiwan’s ties to the United States could prove useful.

When President Reagan first took office after saying in his 1980 campaign that he would upgrade U.S. ties with Taiwan, China’s reaction was so frosty that relations between Washington and Beijing seemed near the breaking point.

Preserved Setup

But Reagan eventually preserved the setup he inherited from Carter. In 1982, the United States agreed to reduce its arms sales to Taiwan gradually and two years later Reagan made a state visit to China. Those steps appeared to be enough to satisfy Beijing.

Han Xu, Chinese ambassador to the United States, asked in a recent interview with The Times about Taiwan’s extensive dealings in Washington, replied calmly: “So long as it is unofficial, it is all right.”

He reminded a reporter that the United States has acknowledged since 1972 that Taiwan is part of China. (Taiwan’s Nationalist regime also officially holds to the position that it is the legitimate government for both Taiwan and mainland China.)

China still registers an occasional protest, particularly over U.S. support for Taiwan’s defense. In the 1982 agreement, the United States promised to cut back on arms sales to Taiwan, in effect putting a ceiling on these annual sales of $800 million in fiscal 1983.

Since then, the United States has begun to switch the focus of its military help for Taiwan. Instead of selling arms directly to Taiwan, the United States has been encouraging private American defense contractors to transfer technology to Taiwan or to enter into co-production agreements, in effect helping Taiwan to develop its own defense capabilities.

“This is still the crucial issue between China and the United States, because it is an interference in our internal affairs,” one Chinese official, who declined to speak for the record, said recently. “It is like the British selling arms to the Confederacy.”

Taiwan officials say that they have little choice but to continue seeking U.S. military help because Taiwan’s armed forces were long ago trained and supplied with American equipment.

“We are pretty much stuck with you,” said Dr. Shaw Yu-ming, a Taiwan government spokesman, during a visit to Washington last June. “We have a saying that even spouses you can divorce, but once you’re stuck with a military system, you’re stuck.”

“Our basic need is defense,” Chien observed. “ . . . What have we been doing (in the United States)? We have been very quiet. That’s No. 1. We don’t want to have any publicity on that issue of arms sales from the United States. Any time we have publicity, it serves to defeat our purpose.”

Taiwan has made it plain that it would love to have American troops come back to the island if the United States should lose its two strategic bases in the Philippines. “We have good naval and air force bases available,” Chien said. “But it takes two to tango. I frankly do not believe the U.S. government is prepared to do that.”

In private conversations, some U.S. scholars voice the opinion that Taiwan’s separate status serves American interests. The island, which Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles once called “an unsinkable aircraft carrier,” is strategically located near China, Japan and South Korea.

Too Powerful

If China and Taiwan were reunified, so this argument goes, then China would become too powerful. No American official or scholar is willing to say this on the record, because ever since President Richard M. Nixon’s visit in 1972, the official U.S. policy has been that Taiwan is part of China.

For now, Taiwan’s economic dependence on the United States remains as strong as its military reliance.

In 1986, more than 48% of Taiwan’s exports went to the United States. Last year, in part as the result of an intensified Taiwan effort to diversify, the figure dropped to 43%.

The total two-way trade last year was $33.6 billion, with a deficit of $19.2 billion in Taiwan’s favor. Its booming sales in the United States have helped Taiwan run up reserves of $75 billion, making them, as of last June, second largest in the world behind Japan’s reserves. Much of the money is invested in the United States.

The trade surplus with the United States and the foreign reserves “give Taiwan a lot of clout,” said Kreisberg. “They’re now players in the international financial market.”

But China makes clear that it will not be easy for Taiwan to turn its economic clout into official status. “They are trying to use their economic strength to preserve themselves as a political entity,” one Chinese official said. “. . . There is just no way.”

Taiwanese officials acknowledge that they have a strong interest in the American presidential election. Taiwan wants to make sure that any new Administration in the White House will live up to the terms of the Taiwan Relations Act, the 1979 law requiring the United States to continue providing arms for Taiwan’s defense.

“Two years ago, we started to cultivate all the candidates who had indicated that they might run (for President), including the lady, (Rep. Patricia) Pat Schroeder (D-Colo.),” said Chien. “Myself, my colleagues, tried to see as many candidates as possible.”

Now, he said, “you could say, most of the time we spent is wasted, because a lot of candidates have stepped aside. . . . But to me, it’s not wasted, because we broaden our contacts with both sides of the aisle, from very conservative to very liberal.”

Contacts Confidential

Chien refused to say whether, during his time in Washington, he had met with the secretaries of state or defense or exactly which Administration officials he had been allowed to see. “Theoretically, I am not supposed to meet with anyone, right?” he replied.

At least three senior State Department officials, Undersecretary of State Michael Armacost, Undersecretary Allen Wallis and Deputy Asst. Secretary Stapleton Roy, attended Chien’s farewell party.

“He (Chien) was not an ambassador, but he knew more about how to operate in this town, and had more clout and influence than 98% of the ambassadors in this city,” one U.S. official said.

Chien returned to Taipei last month to become, officially, chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and, unofficially, a frequently mentioned candidate to become the Nationalist government’s next premier.

Sitting inside his unofficial embassy in Washington before his return home, Chien reflected with satisfaction to a visitor about his five years as an unofficial ambassador.

“I really do not feel any impediment in what I was asked to do here in Washington,” he said, “despite the fact that this is an unofficial office, and I, to the best of my knowledge, am a nonperson.”