Pataki’s China Visit Used To Undermine Taiwan

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The New York Sun

The first official meeting of Governor Pataki’s week-long trade mission to China was used by the communist country’s state-run press to undermine support for the independence of Taiwan.


The Taiwan issue led a Xinhua news service report on Mr. Pataki’s talks in Beijing with a member of the Chinese government’s politburo, Jia Qinglin. The governor “reaffirmed that the U.S. government adheres to a one-China policy, and opposes Taiwan’s independence,” the wire service reported.


At the session, Mr. Jia declared that “it is in the interest of both China and the United States to oppose ‘Taiwan independence’ forces and safeguard peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, the Xinhua dispatch said.


America adopted the so-called “one China policy” in the 1970s and early 1980s, as part of a series of diplomatic agreements that established normal diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing. In 1979, Congress adopted legislation that commits America to provide arms for Taiwan’s defense.


The official news service’s report did not quote Mr. Pataki directly. An aide at the governor’s office in Albany had no immediate comment on the accuracy of the account.


A Taiwanese activist in New York, Tung Chien-Hung, reacted to the report by urging the governor to be cautious in his dealing with Chinese officials. “The threat to peace in the Taiwan Strait is China, not Taiwan,” said Mr. Tung, who is studying urban planning at Columbia University.


“I would strongly advise Mr. Pataki to be aware of what the Chinese government is,” Mr. Tung said. “If you just repeat what Chinese officers said about it, you don’t protect American interests or global interests, you protect Chinese leaders’ interests.”


A leading advocate for Chinese political prisoners, John Kamm, said yesterday that the episode indicates that Mr. Pataki’s expressed desire to leave human rights off his agenda was unwise. “It would be the height of irony, or perhaps I should say chutzpah, for the Chinese to raise Taiwan when the governor’s handlers have rejected the idea of raising human rights,” Mr. Kamm said. “It’s a bit rich.”


According to an itinerary provided by the governor’s office, Mr. Pataki was also scheduled to deliver a speech yesterday at China’s premier educational institution, Beijing University, and to meet with the mayor of Beijing, Wang Qishan, who serves as head of the Beijing Olympic Committee.


Also on the governor’s agenda yesterday was a meeting with Chinese officials interested in making real estate investments in New York state and separate sessions with officials and guards at the American Embassy, the itinerary said.


Mr. Pataki is scheduled to hold more meetings in Beijing today before traveling south to Nanjing and Shanghai later in the week.


Mr. Pataki is accompanied by about a dozen New York business leaders, who are paying their own way, and a slightly smaller number of staff, whose travel is being paid for by the state.


The New York Sun

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