VZCZCXYZ0010
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #1227 2870941
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 140941Z OCT 09
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2488
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 9438
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0852

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 001227 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR INR/R/MR, EAP/TC, EAP/P, EAP/PD - THOMAS HAMM 
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 news 
coverage October 14 on American International Group (AIG) Inc's 
announcement Tuesday that it will sell its stake in a Taiwan life 
insurance company to a Hong Kong-based financial holding company; 
and on a controversy involving the Taipei City Government and a DPP 
city councilor over the security of a gondola in Taipei.  The 
pro-unification "United Daily News" ran an exclusive news story on 
page six with a banner headline reading: "Opening [Taiwan's Market] 
to U.S. Bone-in Beef, 'Hopefully before the End of this Year.'"  In 
terms of editorials and commentaries, an op-ed in the 
pro-independence "Liberty Times" discussed what it believes to be 
President Ma Ying-jeou's "serious" tilting toward China.  The 
article cited several cases, including AIT Director William 
Stanton's reported remarks on former President Chen Shui-bian's 
legal case during his recent visit to Taiwan's Minister of Justice 
Wang Ching-feng, and the Ma administration's alleged attempt to 
refuse U.S. rescue and relief assistance in the wake of Typhoon 
Morakot in early August, and concluded that Taiwan's badly tilting 
toward China has finally made the United States see the true face of 
Ma.  End summary. 
 
"Ma Ying-jeou Putting the United States Ill at Ease" 
 
Columnist Paul Lin opined in the pro-independence "Liberty Times" 
[circulation: 680,000] (10/14): 
 
"The U.S. government had felt much relieved initially when Ma 
Ying-jeou assumed the presidency, as relations across the Taiwan 
Strait had greatly improved as a result of Ma's pro-Beijing policy. 
Yet the follow-on development was not the case because [Ma's] 
tilting toward the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has become 
surrendering himself to the CCP.  [Such a development] has kept the 
United States on its toes, which can be illustrated by several 
events happened lately. 
 
"New AIT Taipei Office Director William Stanton said during his 
visit to Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng on September 30 that 
some people outside Taiwan have different views about the legal 
cases of [former President] Chen Shui-bian.  Why did Stanton want to 
comment on Bian's case and run the 'risk of intervening with 
Taiwan's internal affairs'?  Obviously it was because the United 
States felt that it is no longer a purely judicial issue. ...  The 
editorial in the September issue of 'Taiwan Business Topics' 
published by the American Chamber of Commerce also indicated that 
Taiwan should strengthen its relations with the United States while 
improving cross-Strait relations, because the United States is 
Taiwan's most important ally in the international community. ... 
Prior to that, Ma's [attempt to] 'eliminate the Green [staffers]' in 
the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) had caused the National 
Endowment for Democracy supported by the U.S. Congress to write to 
Ma, hoping that FOD's independence and quality work would not be 
thus jeopardized. 
 
"What did such events tell us?  Not only has Ma lost balance in his 
handling of [Taiwan's] relations with the United States and with 
China, but these events are related to the regression of the basic 
values that must be upheld by [Taiwan as] a democratic country. 
What made the United States most uncomfortable was the fact that in 
the wake of Typhoon Morakot in early August, Ma had sought to stop 
U.S. rescue personnel [from coming to Taiwan] on the one hand and 
attempted, on the other hand, to allow the People's Liberation Army 
(PLA) to come to conduct rescue operations in Taiwan.  Until now Ma 
has yet to clearly explain what really happened then. ... 
 
"Taiwan's serious tilting toward the Communist Party has made the 
American people come to realize Ma's true face.  In order to 
reinforce Taiwan-U.S. relations, a 'Liberty Times' news report 
recently quoted sources from Washington as saying that the Obama 
administration has completed an internal policy review toward Taiwan 
and is planning to send Eric Shinseki, the Secretary of Veterans 
Affairs and a four-star Japanese-American general, to visit Taiwan 
in the spring of 2010 -- a move that will break the record that no 
Cabinet officials from the Bush administration ever visited Taiwan. 
The move will certainly make the PLA, which is aimed at defeating 
American Imperialism and liberating Taiwan, ill at ease, and it will 
make Ma, who is joining hands with the CCP to restrain Taiwan, 
uncomfortable.  But with his green card and other relevant 
information held in the hands of the U.S. government, will Ma dare 
to make the United States uncomfortable just to make China feel 
good? ..." 
 
STANTON