Taiwan Today

US President Barack Obama is likely to send Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki to visit Taiwan next spring, according to sources familiar with the matter. If Shinseki’s trip comes off, the retired U.S. Army four-star general will be America’s first incumbent Cabinet official to visit Taiwan in nearly 10 years. Pundits see such a move by the Obama administration as groundbreaking in that the long-standing practice of sending Cabinet officials to Taiwan every two years was discontinued by former President George W. Bush. The decision is believed to have come following the Obama administration’s recent completion of its Taiwan policy review. This was carried out by Jeffrey A. Bader, senior director for Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, Kurt M. Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and Wallace C. Gregson, assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs. The source said the Obama administration has now settled on the tone of its cross-strait relations policy, which would continue in the same vein as former President Bush’s. Obama, however, will go one step further and promote policies that were not carried out under the previous administration, such as sending a Cabinet official to visit Taiwan. “Given Washington’s strategy of strengthening its ties with Beijing and the vastly improved state of cross-strait relations, one can expect no change in U.S. policy toward Taiwan,” the source said. As to Taiwan’s request for American weapons, Beijing would continue pressuring Washington to honor the terms of their 1982 Communique and limit arms sales to the island, according to a U.S. official familiar with cross-strait relations. “This means that there is little likelihood the ROC will be able to make expanded arms purchases from the United States.” The official said Obama’s postponement of his first meeting as president with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama could be seen as succumbing to Beijing pressure. “We believe Chinese leader Hu Jintao will reiterate Beijing’s stance on the issue of the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan during Obama’s visit to mainland China in November.” Between 1992 and 2000, Taiwan was visited by U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills, Secretary of Transportation Federico Fabian Pena, Administrator for Small Business Administration Philip Lader, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson and Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater. (CYH-JSM)