U.S. Gestures Leave Taiwan Hungry for Recognition : Asia: Administration tries to show it cares without undermining American relations with Beijing.

Taiwan wants respect. President Clinton sent Transportation Secretary Federico Pena on an “unofficial” visit.

Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, instigator of major democratic reforms on the island, wants recognition and a seat in the United Nations. Pena, who arrived in Taipei on Monday, read him a letter from Clinton addressed to another man.

Such is the diplomatic ballet being danced in Taipei these days as the U.S. government tries to show Taiwan its love without violating its 15-year-old policy agreement with mainland China stating that Taiwan does not exist as an independent state.

Although Taiwan is one of its biggest trading partners, the Communist government officially still considers the island a province of the mainland under the control of “bandits.” In 1979, the United States recognized the “one China” policy and severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan in order to normalize relations with the much larger and more populous People’s Republic of China.

Critics of the U.S. policy say it is difficult to find another country in the world more deserving of U.S. favor than Taiwan.

Even without formal recognition, Taiwan is one of Washington’s staunchest political allies. It is the sixth-biggest importer of U.S. goods, ahead of France in that respect. Almost all of its senior leadership, including Lee, hold advanced degrees from U.S. universities.

More impressively, over the past six years Taiwan has converted itself from a one-party, martial-law regime into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies.

Two years ago, in a move that infuriated the mainland Chinese regime, then-President George Bush took the first step toward acknowledging Taiwan’s progress, sending then-U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills to Taipei for a Taiwanese-U.S. business conference.

After a policy review in September, Clinton vowed to raise the level of U.S. contact with Taiwan another notch. Clinton, who visited Taiwan four times as governor of Arkansas, praised in writing Taiwan’s “remarkable economic development and democratic evolution.”

This week he dispatched Pena and several Treasury officials to attend the same business meeting attended by Hills two years ago.

Also attending the business conference were Bush and Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska). Murkowski, one of the Senate’s strongest advocates of diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, accompanied a 29-person delegation from Alaska.

In a statement at the airport, Pena pleased the Taiwanese officials by pledging U.S. support for Taiwan’s candidacy for the World Trade Organization, successor to GATT, or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. But Pena stressed that his visit to Taiwan is “unofficial.”

Although he will meet privately with President Lee today, his public communication with the Taiwanese leader Monday was limited to reading a letter from Clinton to former Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, co-chairman of the R.O.C. (Republic of China on Taiwan)-U.S.A. Economic Council that sponsored the meeting.

“Dear Cap,” Clinton’s letter began, continuing to explain that “Secretary Pena’s presence at this meeting is ample testament to the interest of this Administration in improving economic relations between the United States and Taiwan.”

For his part, Lee did nothing to hide his disappointment, calling the Clinton policy review a “miniature shift.”

“Rarely can we find another country in the world that is comparable to the Republic of China’s (Taiwan’s) outstanding scores both in democratic system and in market economy,” Lee said in a speech Monday while Pena listened only a few feet away. “Therefore, a reasonable recognition from the U.S. of our positive roles in the Asia Pacific region and in the world should be a matter of course for a fair status and just treatment that we so much deserve.”

Today’s editions of Taiwanese newspapers all featured front-page photographs of Pena reading the “Dear Cap” letter as Lee looked on sternly. In what was described by the Taiwanese press as another “first,” Pena also met with Taiwanese Foreign Minister Fredrick Chien and Vincent Siew, the chief of the Council of Economic Planning and Development.

Obviously uncomfortable with the contradictions of U.S. policy related to Taiwan, Bush effusively praised Lee at a dinner Monday night.

“I salute Taiwan for making great strides in its inexorable march toward democracy,” Bush said, expressing sympathy to the Taiwanese leaders for “the difficult position you find yourselves in”--alluding to the lack of official recognition.

Only a handful of nations, including several African countries that have benefited from Taiwan’s generous foreign aid, formally recognize Taiwan. Few countries are willing to take this step because it means immediate loss of diplomatic recognition by China.

But when he was asked by a businessman at the dinner when Taiwan could expect to be given a seat in the United Nations, Bush could only say:

“I just can’t help you. I’m not clairvoyant enough to know when it will happen.”