U.S. OKs Stopovers, Meetings for Taiwan Chief

In a step sure to further strain U.S. relations with China, the Bush administration said Monday that it will allow President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan to stop over in the United States before and after a trip to Latin America and to meet with members of Congress while he is in the country.

Chen plans to visit New York on May 21-23 on his way to Latin America and stop in Houston on June 2-3 en route to Taiwan.

Although U.S. and Taiwanese officials insisted that the stops would be made primarily for Chen’s health and comfort, there is no doubt that he could make the trip to El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay and Honduras without spending time in the United States.

It will be Chen’s second trip to the Latin countries, which are among the comparative handful of nations that formally recognize his government.

In August, when Chen made a similar stopover in Los Angeles, the Clinton administration sought to placate China by refusing to permit the Taiwanese president to confer with members of Congress. That decision did not satisfy Beijing, and it angered lawmakers. This year, the Bush administration decided to give priority to its relations with Capitol Hill.

“We do believe that private meetings between members of Congress and foreign leaders advance our national interests, so [Chen] may have meetings with members of Congress,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Under an agreement between the administration and Taiwan, Boucher said, Chen’s schedule would be “private and unofficial.” That apparently will preclude speeches, but the Taiwanese president does not plan to remain in his hotel room, as Taiwanese officials sometimes have done.

According to reports from Taiwan, Chen plans to meet New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, visit the New York Stock Exchange and take in a baseball game.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, interviewed Monday on CNN, said the administration will tell China that there is nothing in Chen’s stopover that Beijing “should find disturbing or in any way modifying or changing or casting any doubt on the policy that exists between us and the People’s Republic of China.”

Beijing regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and applies heavy political pressure to isolate the Taipei regime. The United States maintains a “one China” policy that calls for the eventual peaceful reunification of the island with the mainland. Bush said recently that he would do “whatever it took” to help Taiwan defend itself if China attacked.

China objects to U.S. transit stops by any senior Taiwanese official. Sino-U.S. relations have been especially tense since the emergency landing of a U.S. spy plane on China’s Hainan island April 1 and Bush’s decision to sell Taiwan a package of weaponry.

Last year, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) held a brief private meeting with Chen in Los Angeles, scorning the State Department’s objections. Rohrabacher plans to meet with Chen next week in New York.

House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) plans to meet Chen in Houston. Last year, DeLay accused the Clinton administration of appeasing China, comparing then-President Clinton to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who tried to placate Nazi Germany.