VZCZCXYZ0008
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #1143 2180647
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 050647Z AUG 08
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9664
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 8498
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 9714

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 001143 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/PA, EAP/PD - NIDA EMMONS 
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: U.S-TAIWAN RELATIONS 
 
Summary:  Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies focused August 5 
news coverage on Taitung County Magistrate Kuang Li-chen, who 
returned to Taiwan Monday in the midst of controversy for being away 
on a trip to Europe while Taitung County was being pounded by a 
major typhoon last week; on the attack in Xinjiang Province just 
four days before the start of the Beijing Olympics; and on the death 
of Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn Sunday.  The 
centrist, KMT-leaning "China Times" ran a banner headline on page 
eight reading "Ma Ying-jeou: [Taiwan] Is Likely to Participate in 
the World Health Assembly Next Year."  In terms of editorials and 
commentaries, an op-ed piece in the pro-unification "United Daily 
News" urged the Ma administration not to leave Taiwan's relations 
with the United States unattended while seeking to stabilize 
cross-Strait relations.  End summary. 
 
"Do Not Leave Taiwan-U.S. Relations Unattended While Seeking to 
Stabilize Cross-Strait Relations" 
 
Professor Edward Chen of Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of 
American Studies opined in the pro-unification "United Daily News" 
[circulation: 400,000] (8/5): 
 
"...In the wake of the July visits to the United States by 
[Taiwan's] national security officials and the legislative 
delegation, respectively, to explain Taiwan's arms procurement 
position and mainland Chinese policy, it was reported that the State 
Department is expected to inform Congress of the U.S. government's 
interest in selling eight weapons systems to Taiwan.  U.S. President 
George W. Bush even proactively told Asian media representatives in 
the White House in late July that he is 'very pleased' with the 
current state of cross-Strait relations.  Such a development 
indicated that the earlier reports alleging that Washington 
threatened to freeze its arms sales [to Taiwan] were nothing but a 
strategic reflection of Washington's displeasure with the Blue 
camp's blocking of the U.S. arms sales over the previous years and 
Washington's discontent over the way the Ma Ying-jeou administration 
cold-shouldered the United States. 
 
"The impression that the Bush administration is feeling 
cold-shouldered by the Ma administration should be an error of 
carelessness [on Taiwan's side] while it seeks proactively to 
improve cross-Strait relations.  Ma's national security team is 
certainly aware that [Taiwan] relies almost entirely on the United 
States or follows Washington's lead in terms of the island's 
strategic planning, weapons purchases, market access, negotiations 
over WTO issues, talks about the free trade agreement, its 
participation in the international organizations, as well as 
realization of the diplomatic truce across the Taiwan Strait.  Even 
when it comes to the strategic goal of 'stabilizing cross-Strait 
[relations] and rebuilding mutual trust,' put forward recently by 
the Ma administration, Taiwan sought to put equal emphasis on 
cross-Strait [relations] as well as its relations with the United 
States. ..." 
 
YOUNG