U.S. Lawmakers Plan to Meet Taiwan’s Leader

Key House Republicans and Democrats, defying Clinton administration policy, plan to meet with newly elected President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan when he visits Los Angeles on Sunday on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.

Rep. Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut, ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, is arranging a Sunday evening reception for Chen and inviting members of both parties who have accused the administration of letting mainland China dictate the terms of its “one China” policy.

Chen, en route to Central America, will stop overnight in Los Angeles on a transit visa issued by the State Department. The terms of the visa are designed to prevent any official contacts or public appearances by Chen, something consistent with long-standing U.S. policy toward Taiwan.

Although it had not been officially notified of the reception, the Chinese Embassy in Washington declared Thursday that the administration is obligated to prevent such an event from taking place because it would be “one of the activities that [the Taiwanese] use to advance their separatist agenda.”

Among those expected to attend are two California members of the International Relations Committee, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), both of whom have written letters protesting administration efforts to prevent Chen from meeting with members of Congress.

Berman said he thinks that it is a mistake for members of Congress not to hear from different sources, and he intends to “go out of my way” to discuss issues with Chen.

Berman declined to release the letter he wrote to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, however, saying it was private and he did not want to do anything that might spark a controversy on China policy on the eve of the Democratic convention.

Rohrabacher’s letter, written to Stanley Roth, assistant secretary of State for Asian affairs, accused the administration of “bending over backwards to appease the Chinese Communist regime at the expense of our relationship with our democratic ally Taiwan.”

He said that a number of Republican and Democratic members of Congress have asked to meet privately with Chen but that their requests have been denied. “I request that the Department of State end the inappropriate de facto ban and permit elected American officials to conduct informal meetings with President Chen.”

State Department Pressure

The State Department’s official position is that it cannot prevent House members from meeting with Chen. But congressional sources said that, behind the scenes, the department has pressed House members not to hold the session. Berman said he could not comment on whether the administration had urged him not to attend the reception.

Taiwanese sources said the State Department also is pressuring Chen to stay away from the planned reception.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said members of Congress would not need the department’s permission to meet with Chen. But he emphasized that, under terms of the transit visa, the activities of the Taiwanese president in Los Angeles must be private.

“There would be no public or media events, for example,” he said. “There are no meetings with administration officials planned.”

Boucher, stressing that the department expects Chen’s visit to be consistent with terms of the transit visa, said the Taiwanese president will be greeted upon arrival in Los Angeles by the chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan. The institute is the ostensibly private organization that replaced the U.S. Embassy in Taiwan in 1979, when Washington broke diplomatic relations with Taipei and recognized the government in Beijing.

Taiwanese leaders have received transit visas in the past without causing a public furor. But in 1995, when then-Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui made a supposedly “private” visit to attend a reunion at Cornell University, it strained the Washington-Beijing relationship.

China has considered Taiwan a renegade province since the Communist military victory drove the Nationalist government into exile in 1949. And it reacted angrily when Lee was allowed to enter the United States, especially after Taiwanese officials called the four-day visit a huge success.

The Clinton administration, under heavy pressure from Congress, had granted Lee a visa despite a de facto ban on visits by high-level Taiwanese officials enacted after the Carter administration extended diplomatic recognition to Beijing.

Chen’s request for the transit visa for his Los Angeles visit was opposed by the Chinese government, although Beijing initially did not make a major issue of it. Now, with the pending reception by House members, the event could escalate into another international incident.

Zhang Yuanyuan, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy, said the Clinton administration is diplomatically obligated to prevent Chen from attending any formal sessions, including a reception with members of Congress.

“We have made the administration responsible for keeping its word, to keep this transit stop what they promised it to be, nonpolitical,” he said. “The U.S. government is responsible to keep it that way.”

Event Slated for Santa Monica

The reception for Chen is slated to be held at the Santa Monica home of Bruce Wessel, an attorney and former member of Gejdenson’s staff. Wessel, who left the staff position in the early 1980s, had directed Gejdenson’s first campaign for Congress.

Chen is scheduled to spend Sunday night at the Westin Hotel in Long Beach before leaving Los Angeles on Monday for an extended trip to Central America and then to Africa to visit several countries that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.