US smile wears thin as Taiwan’s Chen goads China

By Alice Hung

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian’s
increasingly tough stand on China is testing the patience of
the island’s biggest ally and arms supplier, the United States.

Washington was already frustrated by Taiwan’s delay in
approving an arms package, but Chen’s latest needling of
Beijing over its claim to the island has left it fuming.

“Chen is pushing the envelope and forcing the United States
to draw a line to show him where the limit is,” said George
Tsai, a research fellow at the Institute of International
Relations.

The United States switched diplomatic recognition from
Taiwan to China in 1979 and considers the mainland as China’s
sole legitimate government — the “one-China” policy — but it
is also obliged by law to help Taiwan defend itself.

Washington is keen for neither side to rock the boat in
potentially one of the most dangerous flashpoints in Asia. The
trouble is, Chen has made boat-rocking his hallmark.

His latest move, a decision to scrap the council advising
on eventual unification with the mainland, has infuriated
Beijing.

“Abolishing the unification council cannot be considered de
jure independence, but there is little doubt he is moving
toward that direction,” said Chao Chien-min, who teaches
political science at National Chengchi University. “The United
States will no longer trust Chen Shui-bian. This is the last
straw.”

Taiwan officials say communications with Washington are
“candid and smooth,” and the relationship remains firm.

“There is no sign that relations between Taiwan and the
United States will change,” said Hsiao Bi-khim, lawmaker and
head of international affairs of the ruling Democratic
Progressive Party. “Both governments have a lot in common.”

President George W. Bush vowed early in his administration
to do “whatever it took” to defend the island. But China’s
alarm grew over what it saw as Chen creeping toward
independence, prompting Bush, with China’s Premier Wen Jiabao
at his side, to warn Taiwan in 2003 against upsetting the
status quo.

Chen told visiting U.S. Congressman Rob Simmons on
Wednesday the unification council and 15-year-old guidelines on
unification with the mainland were “absurd products of an
absurd era.”

Newspapers said Chen had also snubbed a special U.S. envoy,
refusing to go back on his decision to disband the council.

Preoccupied militarily and diplomatically by Afghanistan,
Iraq, Iran and North Korea, Washington is anxious not to add a
face-off over Taiwan to its disputes with China over trade and
currency.

“The United States wants a manageable status quo. It
doesn’t want to see things out of control,” Tsai said.

China and Taiwan split at the end of the Chinese civil war
in 1949 when the defeated Nationalists fled into exile on the
island. China insists on eventual reunification and has vowed
to attack Taiwan if the island formally declares statehood.

U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said in
Washington this week that Taiwan needs to “refrain from taking
actions which can be seen as unilateral efforts to change the
status quo.”

Although the National Unification Council, set up in 1990,
has been dormant since Chen took office in 2000, the president
appears to be breaking vows not to push for formal
independence, which included not dissolving the council and the
guidelines.

Analysts believe Chen, whose second and final term ends in
2008, is seeking to consolidate support among core independence
supporters to avoid being written of as a lame duck.