Taiwan Leader to Leave U.S.; China Vents Its Anger at Visit

Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui wrapped up a groundbreaking visit to the United States on Saturday facing new charges from China that his trip has endangered Sino-U.S. relations and the future of Taiwan itself.

Lee, the first Taiwan president to visit the United States, was scheduled to hold a final day of “unofficial” activities at his Ivy League alma mater, Cornell University in Upstate New York, before departing for home late Saturday.

Taiwan officials traveling with Lee were unanimous in calling the four-day visit a rousing success.

While U.S., Taiwan and Cornell officials all have fought to portray Lee’s trip as simply a private visit by a university alumnus, the attention swirling around Lee has underscored his trip’s political significance.

Under heavy pressure from Congress, President Clinton’s Administration granted Lee a visa last month--overturning a de facto ban on high-level Taiwanese visitors that has held since Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

China, which has regarded Taiwan as a renegade province with no international standing since Communist victory on the mainland drove the Nationalist government into exile in 1949, has reacted with outrage over the trip.

The anger has been directed primarily at the Clinton Administration, which Beijing has accused of scheming to undermine China’s unity. But it has also taken a tough line on Taiwan, which is pushing hard for a higher international profile.

Beijing’s New China News Agency issued a commentary Saturday quoting scholars as saying the Taiwan issue was at a crisis point and accusing Lee of using “tens of millions of U.S. dollars to get the trip through bribery.”

A Taiwan government spokesman declined to comment on what he called a “groundless accusation” and said he had no information on a Pentagon announcement Friday that Taiwan had applied to buy $192 million worth of fighter aircraft parts and components.