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US smile wears thin as Taiwan's Chen goads China

Posted on: Thursday, 23 February 2006, 01:41 CST

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.

Source: REUTERS

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