VZCZCXYZ0025
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #1034/01 1280918
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 080918Z MAY 07
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5176
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 6734
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 7984

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 001034 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - LLOYD NEIGHBORS 
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: U.S.-TAIWAN RELATIONS, U.S.-JAPAN SECURITY 
PACT 
 
 
¶1. Summary:  Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies focused news 
coverage May 8 on a DPP press conference Monday, in which all the 
party's presidential contenders vowed to support former Premier 
Frank Hsieh as the party's presidential candidate for the 2008 
presidential election.  The pro-status quo "China Times" carried an 
exclusive news story on page eleven with the headline "Lee Jye 
Speaks out against the United States' Opposition to [Taiwan's 
Development of] Offensive Missiles." 
 
¶2. In terms of editorials and commentaries, an op-ed in the 
mass-circulation "Apple Daily" discussed the U.S.' Taiwan policy and 
said "even though the United States extended a goodwill gesture 
toward China over the Taiwan issue, it does not mean that for 
Washington, Taiwan's strategic importance is reduced."  An editorial 
in the limited-circulation, conservative, pro-unification, 
English-language "China Post" commented on the U.S.-Japan security 
pact and said the two countries "are growing reluctant to be drawn 
into a conflict with China over Taiwan's push for statehood."  End 
summary. 
 
¶3. U.S.-Taiwan Relations 
 
"Small Changes in the United States' Taiwan Policy, but General 
Direction Remains Unchanged" 
 
Nan Hua University's Department of International Studies Director 
Emerson Chang opined in the mass-circulation "Apple Daily" 
[circulation: 520,000] (5/5): 
 
"Is there any change in the United States' policy toward Taiwan? 
The three big actions recently taken by the State Department for 
three consecutive days starting May 1 have drawn people's attention: 
 First, the 2005 statement regarding 'encouraging that all 
cross-Strait related issues be resolved peacefully via dialogue' was 
scrapped from the joint declaration following the U.S.-Japan 
Security Consultative Committee meeting in 2007.  Second, Deputy 
Secretary of State John Negroponte, when testifying before the House 
 
SIPDIS 
Foreign Affairs Committee, said without following his prepared 
speech text that '[some] political actors in Taiwan try in some way 
to change the status quo by name change, calling for referendums or 
changing the constitution.'  Third, AIT Taipei Director Stephen 
Young pointed out in his press conference that 'the United States 
does not support Taiwan's development of long-range offensive 
missiles.'  Regarding the aforementioned developments, political and 
academic circles in Beijing believe that they were results of 
improved Beijing-Washington relations and Beijing-Tokyo ties.  But 
this writer sees it exactly the opposite way and believes they were 
the result of increasing tension in China-U.S. relations. ... 
 
"Both Washington and Beijing are now trapped in a security impasse, 
and the evidence included:  for the sake of the war on terrorism, 
the United States has extended its power into West and Central Asia 
via the war in Afghanistan.  China, citing the war on terrorism as 
its justification, also established the Shanghai Cooperation 
Organization and invited Russia and some Central Asian countries to 
join the organization.  Later on, the United States further used the 
war on terrorism as an excuse to launch a war in Iraq, in an attempt 
to gain control of the oil resources in the Mideast.  China, on the 
other hand, started a pearl chain strategy to ensure the safety of 
oil transportation from the Indian Ocean to South China Sea. ... 
 
"Second, a security impasse will deteriorate into a crisis and 
further into a conflict.  Washington believes that China's strategic 
planning will put both sides in the face of a major crisis in the 
future, particularly when it comes to cross-Strait issues. ... 
Given the fact that the situation's development may some day lead 
both sides to catastrophic destruction, the United States is 
obviously unwilling to engage in a race with China over Taiwan, as 
it does not concurQith U.S. interests.  Washington therefore sought 
to cool the situation and resolve China's hostility before the 
latter starts deployment based on its anti-interference strategy. 
The approach Washington adopted was to reduce the stimulus of the 
Taiwan issue toward China, and that is why we saw the three big 
actions being taken [by Washington].  Last, even though the United 
States extended a goodwill gesture toward China over the Taiwan 
issue, it does not mean that for Washington, Taiwan's strategic 
importance is reduced. ..." 
 
¶4. U.S.-Japan Security Pact 
 
"US-Japan Pact Expanding" 
 
The conservative, pro-unification, English-language "China Post" 
[circulation: 30,000] editorialized (5/8): 
 
"Japan is ready to become a 'normal country' by amending its antiwar 
constitution with the approval of the U.S., the original writer of 
that charter.  Meanwhile, concerns regarding Taiwan, always a factor 
PACT 
 
in U.S.-Japan security planning, were dropped for the first time in 
their talks last week in Washington.  It's not as if the two allies 
no longer care about Taiwan's security, but they are growing 
reluctant to be drawn into a conflict with China over Taiwan's push 
for statehood. ... " 
 
YOUNG