VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #0932 2160855
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 040855Z AUG 09
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2044
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 9317
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0750

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 000932 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/P, EAP/PD - NIDA EMMONS 
DEPARTMENT PASS AIT/WASHINGTON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO TW
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: U.S.-CHINA-TAIWAN RELATIONS 
 
Summary:  Taiwan's major Chinese-language dailies focused news 
coverage August 4 on Minister of Health Yeh Ching-chuan, who 
announced his resignation Monday so he can run in the KMT primary 
for the year-end Hualien County magistrate election; and on other 
local political issues.  The KMT-leaning "China Times" ran on the 
front-page the results of its latest opinion survey, which showed 
that 47 percent of those polled said they welcome a meeting between 
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese President Hu Jintao.  In 
terms of editorials and commentaries, an editorial in the 
pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" discussed the 
recently-concluded U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.  The 
article said the fact that Taiwan was not mentioned in the dialogue 
"constitutes an alarming sign that Washington no longer sees Taiwan 
as 'an issue'" following what the paper believes to be President Ma 
Ying-jeou's "reconciliation with the PRC's Chinese Communist Party 
regime."   End summary. 
 
"U.S.-PRC Dialogue Has Warning for Taiwan" 
 
The pro-independence, English-language "Taiwan News" [circulation: 
20,000] editorialized (8/4): 
 
"Taiwan politicians and pundits have paid little attention to the 
recent Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) between Beijing and 
the new Democratic Party administration of President Barack Hussein 
Obama held last week in Washington, D.C.  This first formal dialogue 
between the PRC and the U.S. since Obama took office on a wide range 
of issues concerning bilateral relations, but the fact that Taiwan 
was not even discussed constitutes backhanded confirmation of 
concerns that the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) 
administration of President Ma Ying-jeou is tilting too far and too 
fast toward the authoritarian PRC. ... 
 
"Obama's statements reflected his administration's intention to 
continue to effort to turn the PRC into a 'responsible stakeholder' 
in the world system through prudent engagement, but also exposed his 
lack of an effective 'risk hedging' strategy.  In concrete terms, 
the dialogue showed that Washington's unification of the strategic 
and economic dialogue tracks did not entirely realize its goal of 
avoiding divergent opinions within the U.S. government on China 
policy as individual agencies still maintain their own 
China-oriented programs. ...  The fact that Taiwan was not mentioned 
at all in the dialogue constitutes an alarming sign that Washington 
no longer sees Taiwan as 'an issue' in the wake of the Ma's 
'reconciliation' with the PRC's Chinese Communist Party regime. 
This development heightens the urgency for Taiwan-centric political 
leaders to develop a strategy to remind Washington that the 
'black-box' process of renewed KMT-CCP cooperation is both 
subverting Taiwan's hard won democracy and actually fostering new 
dangers to peace and stability and U.S. interests in Taiwan Strait." 
 
 
WANG