Nelson Report: Chen + UN - State = Eff-up

First, my apologies to the State Department on its reaction to the UN entry. It is entirely understandable. Apparently Taipei still has not gotten the message. Chen Shui-bian is only being given an Alaska stopover as a result of -- let us say this bluntly -- his own stupidity. The Taipei Times has the description:

The Presidential Office confirmed yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) would stop over in Alaska on his way to and from Central America.

Observers in Washington have said that the US decision to limit Chen's transit to and from Central America later this month to short stops in Alaska was a rebuke after Chen's push for a referendum on applying for UN entry using the name "Taiwan."

Presidential Office spokesman David Lee (李南陽) said in Taipei yesterday that Chen was willing to "endure humiliation and carry a heavy burden" to perform his task of visiting the nation's allies in Central America.

The president cherishes the friendship and relations with the US government, Lee added.

As the main purpose of Chen's trip is to cement ties with the nation's diplomatic allies in Central America after Costa Rica switched allegiance to China, Chen does not want the issue of his transit stops to blur the focus of this trip, Lee said.

Chen is scheduled to leave for Central America on Aug. 20 to attend a summit in Honduras.

It wasn't a rebuke for attempting to enter the UN. Aaargh! When is the Chen Shui-bian administration going to wake up? Here's a piece of information I didn't know: those idiots in Taipei decided to send the letter to the UN without informing the US first. Hello! How many times does the US have to explain -- it dislikes contradiction but it really, really, really hates surprises.

Last time around, on the Torch issue, the US was silent. Why? Because Taipei informed the State Department of what it was going to do before it actually did it. Was the lesson learned? Apparently not. Once again, my apologies to State.

Meanwhile, the well-known Washington insider report The Nelson Report has the skinny on the UN issue:

While the Bush folks clearly didn't want to seem to be offering the DPP any false encouragement, given the perceived risk of the current election campaign to the "peaceful status quo", no one sounds particularly happy with how the United Nations handled Taiwan's recent gambit on UN membership.

On the one hand, as State Department officials made very clear in public, the decision by President Chen Shuibian to demand formal UN membership as "Taiwan", but not to discuss it in advance with the US, was a major cause of this week's deliberately harsh treatment of Hsieh.

On the other hand, when officials saw the UN secretariat's statement explaining the rejection of Taiwan's application, they were apparently stunned to read language claiming that UNGA Resolution 2758 obliges the UN to consider Taiwan "for all intents and purposes, to be an integral part of the People's Republic of China."

This language jumps, with both feet, on the very carefully maintained US position on "one China", and specifically its practical application that while the US does not "support" independence for Taiwan, it also does not "oppose" independence, if that is what can be peacefully worked out between Beijing and Taipei.

As stated herein earlier, UN 2758 does not recognize that Taiwan is part of China, and that has always been the US reading of that. Chen's move, as Nelson pointed out later in the discussion, may have had the unintended effect of making the UN concede that Taiwan is part of China. That might, at some point, turn out to be a major disaster for Taiwan independence -- one that might have been avoided if Taipei had thought to discuss the issue with the State Department.

Here's a clue, Taipei: if you want to fart and there's another nation downwind, for pete's sake notify the State Department before you do anything. People won't be your friends unless you treat them like your friends.

And again, my apologies to the State Department.

UPDATE: DPA is reporting that China might actually push for a vote on the issue. They cite the Nelson Report, but their source for China's plans? UDN, the pro-KMT rag:

China, to block Taiwan from seeking to join the United Nations, plans to ask UN members to cast vote on whether Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China, a newspaper said Sunday.

The United Daily News quoted The Nelson Report, a daily newsletter on policy issues in Washington, as saying that the US was shocked that when Taiwan recently applied to join the UN, the UN rejected the bid by interpreting Resolution 2758 as ruling that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

The UN position is wrong, but a vote would force the US to declare a position, which it doesn't want to do. See why the US has to be contacted first? UDN is probably making things up, but all the same, it's a no-lose tactic for China. China's diplomatic efforts in Africa and S America, the evisceration of US influence in the world by the Bush Administration, the lack of leadership from Europe....none of this bodes well for a UN vote on Taiwan.

UPDATE: As of Monday, 8/13, the Taipei Times is reporting that the US will pressure the UN to revise its idiotic opinion.

The US will pressure the UN Secretary-General's office to revise its interpretation of Taiwan as part of China, Taiwan's second-most senior diplomat in the US said.

David Huang (黃偉峰), Taiwan's deputy representative to the US, told an audience of overseas Taiwanese and Chinese on Saturday that the US had protested UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's interpretation claim that of UN resolution 2757 identified Taiwan as a part of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Huang said that the Secretary-General's office must issue a correction on this matter to avoid further confusion, adding that Washington had pledged to continue pressuring the office until it issued a correction.

US officials must be truly peeved to have to expend diplomatic capital like this.

[Taiwan] [China] [UN] [US]